:f 


HISTOET  OP  ETHICS 
WITHIN  OEGANIZED  CHRISTIANITY 


BY 

THOMAS   CUMING   HALL,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR      OF      CHRISTIAN      ETHICS      IN     UNION     THEOLOGICAL     SEMINARY. 

AUTHOR     OF     "the     SOCIAL     MEANING      OF      MODERN      RELIGIOUS 

MOVEMENTS    IN   ENGLAND,"    "THE   MESSAGES    OF   JESUS 

ACCORDING     TO     THE     SYNOPTISTS,"     ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1910 


/■-/ 1 


mmL 


Copyright,  1910,  bt 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published  September,  1910 


In  9pemottam 

TO    THE    LOVING    MEMORY    OF 

eiorneltuo  SuEler  Sutler 

TO  WHOM  THE  AUTHOR'S  HEART  WAS  KNIT 
IN  TENDEREST  TIES  OF  LIFE-LONG  FRIEND- 
SHIP, AND  BY  WHOSE  LOVE  HIS  LIFE  WAS 
ALWAYS  QUICKENED  AND  REFRESHED — THIS 
BOOK   IS   MOST   AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED 


May,  /g/o 


04108 


PREFACE 

In  sending  out  this  history,  which  has  been  the  labor  of  several 
years,  the  author  turns  back  in  memory  to  the  many  who  have 
aided  him.  It  is  impossible  to  thank  all  those  by  name  to  whom 
the  author  is  deeply  indebted.  But  a  special  word  of  thanks 
is  due  to  my  friend  and  colleague  Dr.  Marvin  R.  Vincent,  who 
has  read  the  whole  volume  in  proof,  and  out  of  his  ripe  and 
broad  scholarship  offered  many  invaluable  suggestions  and  cor- 
rections. Professor  Charles  A.  Briggs  made  most  helpful  sug- 
gestions in  the  inception  of  the  work,  both  as  regards  system 
and  method.  Indeed  to  each  and  all  of  my  colleagues  I  return 
heartfelt  thanks  for  most  valuable  suggestions  and  inspirations 
as  I  worked  in  a  field  that,  of  necessity,  trenched  on  all  the 
theological  disciplines.  To  those  in  charge  of  the  libraries 
which  I  have  used  I  wish  also  to  return  thanks  for  uniform 
kindness  and  courtesy.  Whether  in  Berlin  or  Oxford,  in  New 
York  or  London,  I  have  found  everywhere  most  self-sacrificing 
eagerness  to  aid  me  in  getting  the  books  I  needed.  But  a  special 
word  of  thanks  I  owe  to  Professor  and  Geheimrat  Dr.  Pietsch- 
mann  of  Gottingen  for  unnumbered  signs  of  special  interest  in 
this  volume,  and  great  courtesy  in  granting  me  special  facilities 
in  the  splendid  library  he  so  ably  directs. 

This  book,  if  properly  done,  should  prove  exceedingly  valua- 
ble, but  as  to  whether  it  is  well  done  others  ueside  the  author 
must  judge.  He  can  only  claim  that  he  has  gone  directly  and 
critically  to  the  sources,  and  sought  at  first  hand  to  understand 
the  work  of  those  whom  he  reviews.  He  has  sought  to  estimate 
the  ethical  progress  of  the  past  as  objectively  and  fairly  as  possi- 
ble. That  blunders  have  been  made,  that  errors  have  crept  in, 
that  partial  views  have  been  taken  is  inevitable.     For  all  cor- 


viii  PREFACE 

rections  the  author  will  be  frankly  grateful,  and  should  the  book 
find  favor  he  will  try  to  embody  any  such  corrections  in  future 
editions. 

One  main  purpose  has  sustained  the  writer  throughout  much 
weary  plodding,  and  that  was  to  understand  and  help  others 
understand  the  essential  message  of  Our  Lord  and  Master 
Jesus  Christ.  One  of  the  painful  truths  brought  home  to  us 
by  any  study  of  history  is  the  fact  that  the  simplicity  of  Jesus' 
teachings  has  been  obscured  and  overlaid  by  intruding  ele- 
ments. The  simple  things  for  which  the  Master  stood,  and 
which  can  be  tried  out  in  life  we  have  deemed  "impracti- 
cable," because  "you  can't  change  human  nature."  So  eccle- 
siastical tradition  has  substituted  theologies  which  cannot  be 
tested  in  life,  for  ethics  which  may  be.  It  has  demanded 
belief  in  doubtfully  true  speculative  and  intellectual  proposi- 
tions, and  called  such  assent  "faith,"  where  the  Master  de- 
manded loving  and  trustful  acceptance  of  simple  canons  of 
conduct,  and  identified  such  acceptance  with  loyalty  to  his 
purpose.  The  study  of  the  history  of  ethics  may  lead,  it  is  to 
be  hoped,  a  chosen  band  to  really  resolutely  insist  upon  putting 
in  the  foreground  what  Jesus  put  in  the  foreground,  and  rele- 
gating even  true  traditions  to  the  background  if  they  are  of 
secondary  importance  for  his  purpose.  We  must  as  good 
Protestants  complete  the  work  of  the  Reformation  and  strip 
from  historical  organized  Christianity  the  encumbering  grave- 
clothes  in  which  her  life  has  been  stifled.  With  good  heart  and 
hope  the  author  puts  forth  his  history  of  ethics  within  organ- 
ized Christianity,  knowing  well  that  the  prayers  of  the  ages  are 
yet  to  be  answered  and  God's  kingdom  will  come  and  his  will 
will  be  done  on  earth  even  as  in  heaven. 

700  Park  Ave.,  New  York, 
May,  1910. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Introduction 3 

CHAPTEK 

I.    The  Preparation  for  Christianity  ...        .  lo 

Note  of  Introduction lo 

I.  The  Grecian  (Classic)  Contribution    ....  n 

II.  The  Hellenistic  Preparation i8 

III.  The  Roman  Preparation 3° 

IV.  The  Old  Testament  Preparation    .        ...  32 

II.  New  Testament  Ethics 48 

Introduction 48 

I.  The  Ethics  of  Jesus 49 

II.  The  Ethics  of  Paul 69 

III.  The  Ethics  of  the  Johannine  Interpretation 

of  Jesus 87 

IV.  The  Ethics  of  the  Other  Canonical  Writings  93 

III.  The  Ethics  of  the  Early  Church 105 

Introduction 105 

I.  The  Ethics  of  Unorganized  Christianity  .     .     .  no 

II.  The  Struggle  for  Individualization     ....  124 

III.  The  Intellectual  Formulation  of  Christianity  143 

IV.  The  Ethics  of  Ecclesiastical  Organization  .     .  167 

V.  The  Ethical  Forces  of  Christianity     .    .    .     .  177 

iz 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I'ACE 

IV.    The  Old  Catholic  or  Bishop's  Church  and  Its 

Ethics 187 

Note  of  Introduction 187 

I.  Athanasius  and  Monasticism 193 

II.  The  Message  of  the  Great  Preachers     .     .     .  202 

III.  The  Monastery  and  Asceticism 215 

IV.  The  Bishop's  Church  and  Culture    .     .     .     .  221 

V.  The  Bishop's  Church  and  the  Cult  and  Its 

Ethics 231 

VI.  The  Church  and  Her  Theology 235 

VII.  The  Ethics  of  the  Councils 251 

V.    The  Militant  Papacy  and  Its  Ethics 258 

I.  The  Separation  of  the  East  from  the  West  .     .  258 

II.  The  Relation  of  Church  and  State    ....  261 

III.  The  Missionary  Movement  and  the  Mon- 

astery                269 

VI.    Scholasticism  and  Its  Ethics 282 

I.  The  Ethics  of  Scholasticism 282 

II.  Constructive  Scholasticism 294 

III.  Critical  Scholasticism 333 

IV.  Mystical  Scholasticism 341 

VII.    The  English  Reformation  and  Its  Ethics  .    .    .  365 

Note  of  General  Introduction 365 

I.  The  Ethics  of  the  Forerunners  of  the  Reforma- 

tion—Wyclif,     the     Lollards,    Tyndale, 

Hooper 378 

II.  The  Ethics  of  the  Lollards 386 

III.  The    Ethics   of    Puritanism — Thomas    (\irt- 

wright,  Travis,  John  Knox 396 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAFTEK  ^^'^^ 

IV.  The  Ethics  of  Anglo-Catholicism 410 

V.  The  Ethics  of  Independency 424 

VI.  The  Ethics  of  Philosophical  Protestantism     .  438 


VIII.    The  Continental  Reformation  and  Its  Ethics   .  468 

I.  The  Ethics  of  Luther 468 

II.  The  Ethics  of  Melanchthon 496 

III.  The  Anabaptist  Movement  and  Its  Ethics     .  505 

IV.  The  Ethics  of  the  Reformed  Churches  ...  509 

V.  The  Ethics  of  John  Calvin 518 

VI.  The  Ethics  of  the  Creeds  of  the  Continental 

Reformation 533 

VII.  The  Epigones  of  the  Sixteenth  and  Seven- 

teenth Centuries 535 

VIII.  The  New  Protestant  Casuistry 540 

IX.  The   Ethics   of   Pietism   in  the  Continental 

Churches 544 

X.  The   Ethics  of  Post-Tridentine   Roman  Ca- 

tholicism       554 

XI.  The  Ethics  of  Philosophical  Protestantism  on 

the  Continent 5^3 

IX.    The  Merging  of  Churchly  with  Philosophical 

Ethics — A  Summary 576 

Introductory  Note 57^ 

Index 599 


HISTORY   OF    ETHICS    WITHIN 
ORGANIZED  CHRISTIANITY 


v<t<- 


/r    "^^     Of    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


HISTORY    OF    ETHICS    WITHIN 
ORGANIZED  CHRISTIANITY 


INTRODUCTION 

I.  However  difficult  it  may  be  to  define  scientifically  the 
great  historic  force  in  the  world's  history  which  men  call  Chris- 
tianity, one  note  it  has  which  separates  it  from  all  kindred 
movements:  it  is  linked  in  the  traditions  of  all  its  professed 
followers  with  the  message  of  the  man  Jesus  Christ. 

This  Jesus  appears,  however,  in  history,  primarily  as  a  new 
inspiration  and  vital  force.  We  have  no  detailed  and  exhaustive 
account  of  his  activity  and  no  exact  summary  of  his  actual  doc- 
trine. For  a  biography  of  him  we  must  depend  upon  the 
imperfect  memories  of  loving  interpreters,  whose  materials  are 
given  in  such  a  way  as  to  preclude  accurate  chronological  rear- 
rangement. At  best  such  reordering  is  hypothetical,  however 
attractive.  Honest  and  devout  men  and  women  gave  their  ex- 
planations of  what  Jesus  had  taught,  and  interpreted  him  to  the 
eager  numbers  who,  after  his  death,  became  his  followers.  These 
questions  they  answered  with  a  large  freedom,  so  that  it  is  now 
often  quite  impossible  to  say  how  far  we  have  the  words  of  Jesus 
and  how  far  the  commentary  of  the  disciple.^  In  some  cases, 
as  in  the  case  of  Paul,  the  claim  was  advanced  for  inward 
spiritual  authority  to  speak  in  the  name  of  Jesus  even  after  his 
death. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  meagre  records,  the  significance  of  this  life 
has  been  simply  overwhelming.    No  matter  what  men  may  yet 

'  Cf.  especially  the  discourses  of  John's  Gospel.  For  the  literature  that  deals 
with  the  question  whether  Jesus  was  an  historical  personage  at  all,  see  under 
the  heading,  "The  Ethics  of  Jesus,"  the  literature  there  noticed,  p.  49. 

3 


4  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

believe  of  Jesus,  he  has  left  immeasurable  results  for  all  the 
succeeding  ages.  This  life  is  connected  with  a  great  upward 
movement.  The  religious  feelings  of  men  received  new  in- 
spiration and  direction.  The  standards  of  human  conduct  and 
judgment  were  purified  and  changed.  That  life  still  exercises 
its  wonderful  power,  and  is  still  the  centre  of  a  great,  though 
incomplete,  movement  aiming  at  divine  perfection.  It  is  the 
ethics  of  this  movement  in  its  various  phases  that  we  set  gup 
selves  to  study. 

Jesus  did  not,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  give  himself  distinctly  to 
the  organization  of  a  new  community,  or  to  the  reconstruction  of 
society,  or  to  the  development  of  a  new  religious  philosophy. 
As  has  well  been  said,  "He  (Jesus)  gathered  about  him  a  little 
circle  of  disciples.  With  them  he  ate  and  drank,  and  during  his 
short  activity  they  constantly  accompanied  him.  They  saw 
how  he  associated  with  men  and  heard  what  he  said  to  them. 
He  did  not  teach,  he  worked  and  felt  before  their  eyes  and  in- 
spired them  to  so  work  and  feel.  He  did  not  consciously  place 
his  person  in  the  foreground,  he  did  not  talk  about  the  signifi- 
cance of  his  life  and  sufferings.  In  fact,  however,  the  impression 
of  his  person  went  far  beyond  his  teaching.  He  was  more  than 
a  prophet:  in  Him  the  Word  was  made  flesh."  * 

The  influence  of  that  person  continues  to  be  felt.  No  com- 
munal life  can  ever  now  escape  that  influence,  and  no  philosophy 
can  fail  to  take  account  of  the  teachings  which  rose  up  at  once 
in  response  to  that  great  personality. 

It  is  true  that  no  community  has  completely  embodied  the 
inspirations  of  Jesus,  and  that  all  so-called  Christian  systems 
of  thought  exhibit  manifest  weaknesses.  So  that  a  history  of 
the  ethics  of  our  common  Christianity  is  a  history  of  approaches 
to  a  goal.  Indeed  this  is  the  greatness  of  Jesus  that  his  name 
is  linked  with  a  divine  ideal  so  high  that  no  church  and  no  state 
can  claim,  with  any  pretence  to  truth,  to  have  really  incorpo- 
rated that  ideal. 

'  Wellhauscn,  J.:  " Israelitische  und  judische  Geschichte,"  4th  ed.,  Berlin, 
1901,  p.  388. 


INTRODUCTION  S 

If  we  simply  seek  to  isolate  the  philosophic  and  ethical 
postulates  of  Jesus  and  his  early  disciples,  and  thus  identify 
Christianity  with  these,  we  might  well  ask  with  Ziegler,*  "Are  we 
still  Christian?"  But  this  very  question  implies  the  common 
misconception  of  the  significance  of  Jesus  and  Christianity 
which  makes  Ziegler's  history  often  utterly  misleading  in  spite 
of  its  attractiveness  and  ability.  This  misconception  is,  alas, 
all  too  common  on  the  part  of  both  friend  and  foe.  Jesus  did 
not  bring  primarily  either  a  new  philosophy  or  a  new  ethics. 
He  brought  a  new  ideal  of  life.  And  the  transforming  power  of 
that  ideal  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  humble  faith,  but  of  historic 
experience.  Indeed  the  history  of  the  ethics  of  Christianity  is 
the  history  of  the  influence  of  that  great  personality  and  the 
ideals  which  he  brought,  upon  the  most  diverse  philosophies  and 
the  most  widely  differing  social  structures. 

II.  Two  fields  of  inquiry  open  up  before  us.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  history  of  the  ethics  of  Christianity  might  lead  us  to 
an  attempted  history  of  the  morality  of  communities  calling 
themselves  Christian.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  we  might  concern 
ourselves  wholly  with  the  theoretical  approach  to  the  definition 
of  certain  norms  of  conduct  as  distinctively  Christian.  It  is  this 
latter  field  to  which  we  must  turn;  but  at  the  same  time  realizing 
that  the  unfolding  ideals  of  the  Christian  life  are  not  matters  of 
pure  thought,  but  are  born  of  the  experience  of  the  Christian 
thinker  struggling  to  incarnate  his  ideals.  It  would  be  fortunate 
if  we  could  always  use  the  words  "morality"  and  "ethics"  to 
cover,  the  one  the  more  especially  objective  and  the  other  the 
theoretical  aspects  of  our  field,  in  some  such  way  as  Otto  Ritschl  - 
has  suggested,  but  unfortunately  that  is  not  yet  possible.  Theo- 
ries of  conduct  are  not  the  product  of  our  morality  any  more 
than  morality  is  the  product  of  pure  theory.  Theory  and 
practice  go  hand  in  hand.     To  weigh  these  several  factors  is 

*  Ziegler,  Theobald:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik,"  2d  ed.,  Strasburg, 
1892,  p.  593. 

'Ritschl,  Otto:  " Wissenschaftliche  Ethik  und  moralische  Gesetzgebung," 
Tubingen,  1903,  p.  11. 


i 


6  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

not  always  possible.  To  ignore  either  of  them  is  fatal  to  all 
sound  thought.  We  can  no  more  separate  permanently  theories 
of  ethics  from  the  practice  of  morality  than  we  can  separate, 
save  in  thought,  the  mind  from  the  body. 

The  history  of  the  objective  morality  of  historic  communities 
is  exceedingly  difficult,  and  belongs  more  particularly  to  the  field 
of  the  history  of  civilization.  It  is  with  the  ethical  theory  and 
the  ethical  ideals  we  have  in  these  pages  to  concern  ourselves. 

HI.     A  very  serious  question  is  raised  for  the  historian  of 
the  ethics  of  Christianity  by  the  confessedly  relative  character 
of  all  Protestant  moral  standards.     Any  thorough-going  Protes- 
tantism must  surrender  all  claim  to  the  possession  of  a  body  of 
infallible  rules  of  conduct  whose  explication  is  simply  a  matter 
of  sincerity  and  shrewd  candor.     The  actual  rules  of  conduct 
must  grow  out  of  experience.     What  is  right  and  what  is  wrong 
cannot  be  resolved  into  a  matter  of  enactment,  and  legally 
formulated.     Where,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  is  there  any  differ- 
ence between  philosophical  or  speculative  ethics  and  a  modem 
Protestant-Christian  ethics  ?    To  this  the  only  possible  reply  is 
that  we  maintain  the  reality  of  the  Christian  experience,  and 
that  out  of  Christian  experience  we  may  expect  a  body  of  conduct 
distinctly  bearing  the  marks  of  its  origin.    No  speculative  system 
of  ethics  can  therefore  satisfy  the  Christian  heart  and  conscience, 
when  it  takes  no  account  of  what  to  the  Christian  believer  is  the 
supreme  reality  of  his  experience.     The  Christian  has  seen  God 
in  Christ  Jesus,  and  from  thenceforth  Jesus  has  for  him  the 
value  of  God.     His  experience  of  forgiveness  of  sin  is  attested 
by  the  outcome  in  appropriate  conduct  and  in  his  fellowship 
with  a  brotherhood  in  forgiveness.     The  basis  for  a  Christian 
ethics  is  therefore  the  forgiven  life  working  itself  out  in  a  trans- 
formation of  all  ideals,  a  revaluation  of  all  values,  to  accept  the 
challenge  of  our  fiercest  critic,  Friedrich  Nietzsche.     And  the 
goal  is  distinctly  set  forth  in  the  revelation  of  God  in  all  human 
life.     There   is,   therefore,   no  complete  system  of   Christian 
ethics,  nor  can  there  be  any  such  until  human  experience  is 
completely  under  the  sway  of  the  Christian  ideal.     At  the  same 


INTRODUCTION  7 

time  we  hope  to  show  that  there  are  steady  approaches  to  the 
ideal  set  before  us  as  a  formal  principle,  and  that  our  task  is 
the  history  of  these  approaches. 

IV.  Strangely  enough,  the  history  of  Christian  ethics  has  had 
no  adequate  treatment  by  an  English-writing  student.  The  two 
volumes  by  F.  D.  Maurice  on  "Moral  and  Metaphysical 
Philosophy,"  although  abounding  in  learning  and  suggestion, 
are  too  diffuse  and  too  unhistorical  in  method  to  be  of  the  highest 
value  as  history.  The  historical  volume  of  Wuttke's  "  Christian 
Ethics"  is  translated  from  the  German  into  English  (Edinburgh, 
1873;  New  York,  1875),  but  the  original  is  defective  in  method 
and  the  translation  is  harsh.  The  translation  (Clark's  Foreign 
Theological  Library)  of  Luthardt's  "History  of  Christian 
Ethics,"  in  two  volumes,  is  well  done,  but  Luthardt's  pronounced 
Lutheran  dogmaticism  gives  the  whole  history  a  bias  that  robs 
an  otherwise  valuable  work  of  its  greatest  usefulness.  In 
Germany  the  history  of  Christian  ethics  has  always  received 
more  attention  than  with  us.  Staiidlin's  (C.  F.)  "Geschichte 
der  Sittenlehre  Jesus"  (4  vols.,  1 799-1823)  is  indeed  out  of  date, 
but  contains  a  great  mass  of  material  from  which  all  subsequent 
historians  have  borrowed.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Marhein- 
ecke's  (Ph.)  "Allgemeine  Geschichte  der  christlichen  Moral  in 
der  deutschen  Reformation  vorangehenden  Zeiten"  (Sulzbach, 
1806).  Nor  is  the  volume  of  Wuttke,  already  mentioned  as 
translated,  of  much  present  value.  A.  Neander's  "Vorlesung- 
en  liber  Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik,  herausgegeben  von 
David  Erdmann"  (Berlin,  1864)  marks  a  distinct  advance  in 
historical  method.  And  W.  M.  L.  de  Wette's  "Lehrbuch  der 
christlichen  Sittenlehre"  (Berlin,  1833)  has  much  material, 
treated,  however,  from  the  distinctly  philosophical  stand-point 
of  de  Wette.  The  most  recent  works,  apart  from  Luthardt's 
volumes,  already  mentioned  as  being  translated,  are  Bestmann's 
"Geschichte  der  christHchen  Sitte  (2  vols.,  1880-1885),  which  is 
full  of  most  valuable  detailed  research,  but  is  lacking  in  central 
organizing  view-points.  Gass's  "Geschichte  der  christlichen 
Ethik"  (3  vols.,  1881-1887),  which  remain  beyond  doubt  the 
most  valuable  modern  history,  is  especially  good  in  the  treatment 


8  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  early  history.  Ziegler's  "  Geschichte 
der  christlichen  Ethik  "  (2d  ed.,  1892)  fails  to  always  bring  out  the 
fundamental  meaning  of  Christianity,  and  is  often  too  lacking 
in  sympathy  with  the  movements  described  to  do  them  full 
justice.  At  the  same  time  the  book  has  high  merit,  and  is 
always  brilliant  if  often  hasty  in  judgment  and  somewhat 
superficial  in  its  estimates,  and  leaves  upon  the  theological 
specialist  the  impression  that  a  competent  authority  in  another 
field  felt  he  had  to  fill  out  his  work  by  dealing  with  a  subject 
for  which  he  had  no  special  qualification.  Apart  from  histories 
of  distinctly  Christian  ethics,  there  are  sketches  of  the  history  of 
ethics  as  a  speculative  science  of  marked  value.  Among  these 
is  the  admirable  little  sketch  by  Sidgwick,  "Outlines  of  the 
History  of  Ethics  for  English  Readers"  (4th  ed.,  1896).  In 
Wundt's  "Ethik"  there  is  also  a  brief  but  interesting  history  of 
ethics.  In  1845,  Fr.  Ehrenfeuchter  published  his  "Entwickel- 
ungsgeschichte  der  Menschheit,  besonders  in  ethischer  Bezie- 
hung"  (Heidelberg),  and  it  is  a  great  pity  that  more  work  along 
the  lines  he  then  laid  down,  but  with  the  greater  abundance  of 
accurate  references  to  savage  life  now  accessible,  is  not  being 
attempted.  Emil  Feuerlein's  "  Die  philosophische  Sittenlehre  in 
ihren  geschichtlichen  Hauptformen"  (2  vols.,  Tubingen,  1856- 
1859)  contains  valuable  historical  material.  The  most  notable 
historical  work  along  the  ethical  line  has  been  done  by  Jodl 
(Friedr.),  whose  "Geschichte  der  Ethik  der  neueren  Philoso- 
phic" (2  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1882-1889,  and  a  new  ed.  of  vol.  I  in 
1906)  is  by  all  means  the  fullest  and  most  satisfactory  exposition 
known  to  the  writer.  But  the  chapter  on  "Christian  Ethics" 
is  sadly  wanting.  Karl  Kostlin  has  written  on  the  "  Geschichte 
der  Ethik  des  klassischen  Alterthums"  (vol.  I.,  "Die  griechische 
Ethik  bis  Plato,"  1887).  Upon  this  Luthardt  has  also  written 
in  his  "Die  antike  Ethik  in  ihrer  geschichtlichen  Entwickelung" 
(Leipsic,  1887).  An  older  work  by  C.  Mciners,  "Allgemeine 
kritische  Geschichte  der  Ethik  (alteren  und  neueren)  oder 
Lebenswissenschaft"  (Gottingen,  1800-1801,  2  vols.),  has 
largely  lost  its  value.  Martineau's  "Types  of  Ethical  Theory" 
(2d  ed.,  1886)  is  largely  valuable  for  its  brilliant  though  too 


INTRODUCTION  9 

ornate  style.  The  analysis  of  the  historic  systems  is  lacking  in 
historical  objectivity  and  their  classification  cumbersome  and 
defective.  Some  historical  examination  is  found  in  the  pages  of 
James  Mackintosh's  "Dissertation  upon  the  Progress  of  Ethical 
Knowledge"  (edited  by  Whewell,  3d.  ed.,  Edinburgh,  1862),  but 
on  the  whole  it  is  not  now  serviceable. 

V.  The  field  is  so  vast  that  it  is  impossible  to  attempt  even 
a  fairly  complete  bibliography  of  the  primary  and  secondary 
sources.  The  range  covers  the  fields  of  philosophy,  dogmatics, 
and  general  history.  Indeed,  some  of  the  most  useful  ethical 
literature  carries  no  real  indication  of  its  character  in  the  as- 
signed purpose  of  the  book.  For  the  early  canonical  period  we 
have  only  the  canon  itself,  and  for  the  early  church  we  must 
depend  upon  literature  given  up  in  the  main  to  polemic  or 
dogmatic  exposition.  Even  the  Old  Catholic  or  Bishop's 
church  was  so  insistent  upon  doctrine  as  the  basis  of  life,  that 
formal  ethics  has  but  a  secondary  place.  The  ethics  of  the 
militant  church,  educating  the  north  of  Europe  and  intrenching 
itself  in  the  places  of  political  power,  is  to  be  found  mingled  with 
canon  law  and  with  ecclesiastical  institutionalism.  Even  when 
the  scholastic  period  is  reached  it  is  still  the  dogmatic  and 
cosmological  interest  that  dominates,  and  the  ethics  of  an  Anselm 
or  Dun  Scotus  must  be  reconstructed  by  the  historian  from 
materials  gathered  for  dogmatic  exposition.  It  is  therefore  im- 
possible in  such  a  history  to  do  more  than  gather  from  the  litera- 
ture such  typical  forms  as  may  illustrate  the  steady  progress  of 
the  Christian  conception  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  and  the  region 
of  thought  about  conduct.  After  the  critiques  of  Kant  we  find 
ethics  no  longer  possible  as  an  authoritative  system.  From  his 
day  on,  philosophical  ethics  and  the  ethics  of  organized  Chris- 
tianity cannot  be  separated,  and  the  content  of  ethics  is  based 
both  within  and  without  organized  Christianity  upon  experience. 
Hence,  as  we  shall  see,  our  history  really  terminates  with  the  new 
Protestantism  made  necessary  by  the  critical  philosophy,  and  the 
last  chapter  of  our  book  is  therefore  only  a  summary  of  the 
situation  thus  produced. 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY 

Note  of  Introduction. — I.  The  Grecian  (Classic)  Contribution — II.  The 
Hellenistic  Preparation — III.  The  Roman  Preparation — IV.  The 
Old  Testament  Preparation:  Propheticism;  The  Early  and  Later 
Priestly  Development;  The  Deuteronomic  Synthesis;  The  Contribu- 
tion of  Hellenized  Judaism. 

NOTE  OF  INTRODUCTION 

That  the  ethics  of  Christianity  represent  a  synthesis  into 
which  elements  entered  from  the  most  various  quarters  can  no 
longer  be  seriously  denied.  A  certain  type  of  Judaism  had 
succeeded  in  keeping  itself  relatively  untouched  by  the  changes 
going  on  in  thought  all  about  it.  So  that  the  early  New  Testa- 
ment literature,  although  written  in  Greek,  is  yet  thoroughly 
Jewish  in  thought  and  fundamental  feeling.  At  the  same  time 
even  within  the  period  of  the  New  Testament  writings — say  45 
to  125 — the  whole  world  was  profoundly  affected  by  elements 
that  appear  in  the  pages  of  the  later  writings  of  the  canon,  and 
we  cannot  understand  the  canonical  writings  without  some 
understanding  of  the  ranges  of  thought  amid  which  they  had 
their  origin.  In  the  beginning  the  Christian  church  had  its 
following  from  among  the  most  extreme  types  of  Jewish  thought 
and  feeling,  namely,  the  zealots  of  Galilee  and  the  middle  class 
thinking  of  Jerusalem.  It  was  Paul  who  introduced  it  to  the 
larger  world  of  aristocratic  Judaism  and  the  cultivated  circles  of 
Hellenism.  In  this  Hellenism  Christianity  found  too  much 
that  was  congenial  to  pass  it  by.  We  must  then  rapidly  review 
the  various  elements  that  alTected  Christianity,  and  deal  with 
them  as  they  affected  her.  These  elements  were  classic  Greek 
speculation,  the  Hellenized  world  of  thought,  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  more  particularly  the  Old  Testament  in  its  various  phases. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      ii 

I.   THE  GRECIAN    (CLASSIC)    CONTRIBUTION 

Strictly  speaking,  it  was  Hellenism  rather  than  the  classic 
Greek  philosophy  (Democritus,  Plato,  Aristotle)  that  supplied 
the  intellectual  forms  for  the  use  of  early  Christianity.  The 
unorganized  character  of  the  Jewish  intellectual  and  artistic  life 
made  it  inevitable  that  the  early  church  should  seek  elsewhere 
than  in  the  Old  Testament  for  the  means  of  systematic  expres- 
sion of  her  life  and  purpose.  Judaism  itself  felt  the  lack  and 
turned  in  the  same  way  to  Greece  for  help.  Josephus  and  Philo 
show  how  inevitably  the  thoughtful  turned  to  the  classic  models. 

The  books  of  the  Old  Testament  could  supply  content  and 
inspiration  for  the  apologetic  preaching  of  the  early  church,  but 
for  dialectic  and  rhetorical  method,  for  training  in  systematic 
and  logical  thinking,  the  early  defenders  of  the  faith  had  to  look 
to  the  Greek  and  Roman  schools. 

It  is  impossible  at  this  point  to  do  more  than  very  briefly 
point  to  some  of  the  main  elements  of  that  classic  thought  which 
at  once  gave  form  to  the  ethical  thinking  of  the  early  church. 

Plato  rather  than  Aristotle  has  been  chiefly  influential  in  most 
periods  of  the  church's  life.     Even  when,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages, 

Literature. — Schmidt,  L. :  "Die  Ethik  der  alten  Griechen";  2  vols.; 
Berlin,  1882. — Zeller,  Eduard:  "Die  Philosophie  der  Griechen";  5  vols,  (in 
various  editions);  Leipsic,  1889-1903. — Windelband,  W. :  "Lehrbuch  der 
Geschichte  der  Philosophie";  i  vol.,  4th  ed.,  Tubingen,  1907;  pp.  20-218; 
English  translation,  New  York,  1901;  pp.  23-262. — Grote,  George:  "History 
of  Greece";  10  vols.;  London,  1888  (especially  vol.  VIII). — Weber,  A.:  "His- 
tory of  Philosophy";  translated  by  Thilly;  New  York,  Scribner's,  1903;  pp. 
17-53. — Ueberweg-Heinze:  "  Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie";  loth 
ed.;  4  vols.;  Berlin,  1901-1906  (especially  full  citations  of  literature). — 
Ziegler,  Theobald:  "Die  Ethik  der  Griechen  und  Romer";  Bonn,  1881  (vol.  I 
of  his  "Geschichte  der  Ethik). — Kostlin,  Karl:  "Die  Ethik  des  klassischen 
Altertums  (i.  Die  griechische  Ethik  bis  Plato)";  Leipsic,  1887  ("Geschichte 
der  Ethik,"  vol.  I).— Luthardt,  C.  E.:  "Die  antike  Ethik  in  ihrer  geschicht- 
lichen  Entwickelung";  Leipsic,  1887. — Rohde,  Erwin:  "Psyche,  Seelenkult  und 
Unsterblichkeitsglaube  der  Griechen";  2  vols.;  4th  ed.;  Tubingen,  1907. — 
MahafiFy,  J.  P.:  "History  of  Classical  Greek  Literature";  3  vols.;  2d  ed.; 
London,  1883,  1889. — Jowett,  B.:  "Dialogues  of  Plato,"  with  notes;  5  vols.; 
3d  ed.;   New  York  and  London,  1892. — Schaubach,  E.:   "Das  Verhaltniss  der 


12  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Aristotle  was  the  avowed  master  of  all  minds,  the  religious  char- 
acter of  the  Platonic  philosophy  was  indirectly,  in  mysticism,  in 
devotional  books,  and  in  a  thousand  phrases  and  terms  of 
thought,  even  more  influential  than  the  Organum.  Of  course 
Plato's  works  were  only  very  uncritically  known.  Some  of  his 
leading  doctrines  are  to  this  day  confounded  with  conceptions 
entirely  strange  to  his  thinking.  He  was  used  to  support  an 
intellectual  dogmatism  that  would  have  been  wholly  opposed 
to  his  artistic  longing  for  intellectual  freedom.  And  yet  a  dog- 
matic teaching  church  found  in  the  Socratic  identification  of 
wisdom  with  goodness  and  knowledge  with  salvation,  as  Plato 
developed  it,  a  great  source  of  strength  and  comfort.  The 
church  came  revealing,  and,  "If  a  man  know  all  good  and  evil, 
and  how  they  exist,  and  have  existed,  and  will  be  brought  forth, 
would  he  not  be  complete  and  wanting  in  no  virtue,  whether 
justice  or  self-control  or  holiness?  He  would  possess  them  all, 
and  he  would  know  those  (situations)  which  were  dangerous 
and  which  were  not,  and  would  guard  against  them  whether  they 
were  supernatural  or  natural."  *  The  Platonic  thinking  lent 
itself  to  an  appeal  to  supernatural  enlightenment.  The  "de- 
mon" or  "spirit"  (Satfioviov)  of  Socrates  was  itself  an  expression 
of  highest  ethical  faith.     "You  have  heard  me  speak  of  an 

Moral  des  classischen  Alterthums  zur  christlichen  in  Theologische  Studien  und 
Kritiken";  1851;  vol.  XXIV,  pp.  59-121.— Neander,  A.:  "Ueber  das  Verhalt- 
nissder  hcllenischen  Ethik  zur  christlichen";  pp.  140-214;  in  his  "  Wissenschaft- 
liche  Abhandlungen";  edited  by  J.  L.  Jacobi;  Berlin,  1851.— Caird,  E.:  "The 
Evolution  of  Theology  in  the  Greek  Philosophers"  (Gifford  Lectures,  1900-1901, 
1901-1902;  2  vols.;  Glasgow,  1904. — Hatch,  Edwin:  " The  Organization  of  the 
Early  Christian  Churches"  (Bampton  Lectures,  1880);  London,  1881;  and 
"The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon  the  Christian  Church"; 
edited  by  A.  M.  Fairbairn;  2d  ed.;  London,  1891  (Hibbert  Lectures,  1888). — 
Friedliindcr,  L. :  "Darstcllungen  aus  der  .Sittengeschichtc  Roms  in  dcr  Zeit  von 
August  bis  zumAusgangdcrAntonine";  7th  ed.;  Leipsic,  1901. — Siebeck,  Herm.: 
"Plato's  Lehre  von  der  Materie,"  in  his  "Untersuchungen";  2d  ed.;  Freiburg, 
1888. — Harnack,  A.:  "Lehrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte";  vol.  I.;  2d  ed.; 
Introduction;    Freiburg,  i.  B.,  1888;  English  translation. 

'  Laches  199  L.  The  translations  here  and  elsewhere  are  in  the  main  those 
of  Jowett,  with  only  a  few  departures  for  special  reasons  in  favor  of  a  more  literal 
even  if  more  clumsy  rendering. 


THE   PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIANITY      13 

oracle  or  sign  which  comes  to  me,  and  is  the  divinity  which 
Meletus  ridicules  in  the  accusation.  This  sign  I  have  had  ever 
since  I  was  a  child,"  says  Socrates.  "The  sign  is  a  voice  which 
comes  to  me,  and  always  forbids  me  to  do  something  which  I 
was  going  to  do,  but  never  commands  to  me  do  anything."  * 

The  development  of  this  conception  of  an  immediate  intui- 
tional inhibition  by  Plato  into  the  doctrine  of  immediate  vision 
and  ethical  insight  is  most  interesting,  and  gives  at  once  room  for 
a  religious  interpretation  of  common  ethical  experience.^  The 
cult  and  the  mystery  have  more  in  common  with  Plato  than  with 
Aristotle,  and  the  religiously  ethical  character  of  the  speculative 
insight  becomes  more  and  more  prominent  in  his  teaching.^ 
So  that  we  may  say  that  the  ethics  of  Christianity  has  been  pro- 
foundly and  directly  influenced  by  several  elements  in  Plato's 
philosophy.  The  Platonic  doctrine  of  the  immaterial  immortal 
character  of  the  soul,  with  its  contact  on  the  one  side  with  the 
Eternal  and  unchanging  Being  in  the  vision  of  ideas,  and  on  the 
other  with  the  changing  life  of  action  and  suffering,  is  wholly 
foreign  to  the  ranges  of  thought  out  of  which  Christianity  came, 
but  was  at  once  in  crude  outline  accepted,  and  remains  to-day 
as  the  basis  of  nearly  all  Christian  eschatology.  Any  one  has 
only  to  try  and  fit  the  early  Christian  teaching  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  body,  which  was  the  fundamental  postulate  of  the  Jewish 
eschatology,  into  the  Platonic  framework  to  see  how  distinctly 
the  conception  of  the  soul  as  it  is  taught  in  the  Phaedrus  differed 
from  the  Jewish  faith.  But  as.  between  the  two  notions  it  is 
Plato  that  has  triumphed.  Although,  again,  it  must  oe  re- 
membered that  Plato's  doctrine  has  also  received  serious  modifi- 
cations. Ethically  Plato's  doctrine  of  the  soul  laid  emphasis 
upon  the  immediate  and  individual  judgment  at  death.  Com- 
munal and  national  judgment,  such  as  Prophetism  and  the 

•  Apology  31.  Cf.  also  Xenophon  Memor.  IV,  8  and  I,  4,  15,  and  the 
Phaedrus  246  ff. 

=  Cf.  Windelband,  W.:  "Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,"  4th  ed., 
Tubingen,  1907,  p.  loi;  English  translation,  New  York,  1901,  p.  123. 

'  Cf.  Phaedrus,  250. 


14  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Apocalyptic  books  had  proclaimed,  gives  way,  even  in  the  New 
Testament,  to  individual  and  immediate  decision/  The  trans- 
position of  the  emphasis  from  the  national  and  communal  to  the 
individual  responsibility  for  guilt  cannot,  of  course,  be  traced 
entirely  to  Plato,  but  his  doctrine  of  the  immortal  soul  lent  itself 
in  a  peculiar  way  to  the  new  personal  ethics  of  the  Christian 
community. 

The  Platonic  teaching  of  the  idea  was  directly  connected  with 
his  ethical  interest.  Indeed  its  development  was  designed  to 
secure  a  permanent  and  unchanging  foundation  for  conduct  amid 
the  confessedly  changing  circumstances  of  the  sensible  existence.' 

The  idea  (IBda)  has  with  Plato  a  twofold  function,  whose 
connection  it  is  not  always  easy  to  trace.  On  the  one  hand  it  is 
the  unchanging  essence,  the  eternal  type  of  the  temporal  and 
the  changing  including  in  this  the  psychical  and  non-corporeal.' 
On  the  other  hand  the  idea  is  conceived  of  as  possessing  a 
dynamic  character,  so  that  the  idea  of  the  "good"  is  not  only 
the  type  of  goodness,  but  is  the  creator  of  all  good  things  in  so 
far  as  they  are  good.*  Plato's  ideas  are  not  simply  spirit  as  over 
against  material  things.  The  distinction  is  not,  as  in  the  later 
and  corrupted  thought,  that  of  body  and  soul.  The  idea  ex- 
presses the  highest  being  apart  from  all  body,  a  reality  only 
known  in  conception,  giving  unity  to  the  manifold. 

Both  these  conceptions  appear  again  and  again  in  the  ethical 
constructions  of  Christianity  and  in  all  shades  of  comprehension. 
More  particularly  in  the  orthodox  thought  of  God  do  we  find 
attempts  to  express  the  incommunicable  nature  of  his  transcen- 
dental holiness  in  terms  that  recall  Plato's  teaching,  and  in  the 
"Logos"  doctrine  the  Platonic  idea  as  a  dynamic  force  appears 
in  all  shades  of  Hellenistic  and  Neoplatonic  corruption. 

'  Cf.  Luke  i6  :  19-31  and  23  :  43;  cf.  the  "Republic,"  book  X. 

^  Cf.  Wundt:  "Ethik,"  1886,  p.  239,  and  VVindelband:  "Lehrbuch  der 
Geschichtc  der  Philosophic,"  4th  ed.,  1907,  p.  95.  English  translation,  New 
York,  1901,  p.  118. 

*  Phxfio,  78-80;  Farm.,  135;  "  Republic,"  VT,  507-510;  Tima>us,  28  (placed 
on  the  lips  of  Tiinaeus). 

*  Phado,  97-101;    "Republic,"  VI,  S°l  ff- 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      15 

We  shall  also  have  occasion  to  notice  the  distinctly  metaphysi- 
cal interest  that  attaches  itself  to  the  relative  monotheism  of 
Plato  as  contrasted  with  the  purely  ethical  interest  of  Old 
Testament  monotheism.  Here  again  it  is  hard  to  escape  the 
conviction  that  Plato  has  outweighed  the  prophets.  The  way 
in  which  as,  for  instance,  in  the  Timaeus,  the  metaphysical  and 
ethical  interests  are  linked  with  cosmological  speculations,* 
suggests  the  method  of  all  early  Christian  theology.  The  cos- 
mogony of  Genesis  has  little  or  no  metaphysical  interest.  Its 
message  is  religious  and  ethical.  For  Plato  the  metaphysical 
was  in  the  last  analysis  the  only  guarantee  of  the  ethical.  The 
value  of  God  is  that  he  is  the  foundation  for  all  being,  includ- 
ing of  course  as  chiefly  important  the  ethical  verities.  This 
intellectualism  is  fundamental  to  classical  Greek  ethics.^  It  has 
most  profoundly  influenced  all  Christian  thought.  Our  estimate 
of  this  influence  may  be  that  of  Professor  Harnack '  or  that  of 
Professor  Pfleiderer,*  but  the  facts  are  quite  beyond  dispute. 
The  origin  of  metaphysical  monotheism  is  to  be  sought,  not  in 
the  prophets  or  even  in  Paul,  much  less  in  Jesus,  but  in  Plato. 

On  another  field  Platonic  teaching  has  mingled  with  the  ethics 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  given  a  distinct  color  to  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity.  This  is  the  important  region  of  human  guilt. 
The  estimate  of  matter  as  changing,  and  in  itself  lower  and 
evil  and  something  to  be  escaped  from,  is  wholly  foreign  to  the 
older  Jewish  thought,  whose  God  creates  all  things  and  all 
very  good.^  A  despondent  view  of  life  appears,  however,  very 
plainly  in  Plato,'  and  very  soon  began  to  deeply  mark  the  think- 
ing of  Christianity  in  the  Hellenic  world.  Even  in  Paul  we  see 
the  shadows  of  a  despondent  estimate  of  human  life  falling  on 

•  Timaeus,  30-48. 

"^Cf.  Interesting  discussion  of  "Motives"  by  Schmidt:  "Ethik    der   alten 
Griechen,"  Berlin,  1881,  vol.  I,  pp.  156-165  and  253-256. 
'  Cf.  "Dogmengeschichte,"  2d  ed.,  1888,  vol.  I,  pp.  loi-iio. 
*Cf.  "Die  Entwicklung  des  Christentums,"  1907,  p.  7. 

•  Genesis  i  :  31. 

•  C/.  Phaedo,  66,  67,  with  the  further  development  in  Philo's  "DeMundi 
officio,"    §§  57-60. 


i6  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

his  pages,  although  he  had  probably  no  direct  knowledge  of  the 
sources  whence  they  came. 

In  the  later  stages  of  Plato's  philosophy  these  elements  of 
world-flight  and  asceticism  seem  even  more  pronounced.'  He 
was  perhaps  influenced  by  his  own  political  failures.^  He 
himself  regarded  the  "Republic"  as  only  a  council  of  perfec- 
tion, and  Plato  had  so  low  an  estimate  of  Athens  that  he  was 
himself  strongly  under  the  conviction  that  Athens  at  least  could 
never  really  learn.'  The  life  of  philosophy  was  to  be  a  life  of 
retirement  and  contemplation  far  from  the '  phenomenal  confu- 
sions of  the  market  and  the  street.  In  fact  the  philosopher  of  the 
"  Republic"  is  very  nearly  the  picture  of  the  statesman  and  monk 
of  the  great  Papal  state  at  its  best.  It  is  impossible  to  overlook 
the  influence  exercised  by  Plato  upon  the  whole  conception 
of  life  born  of  the  monastic  ideal.  In  conjunction  with  the 
oriental  and  Egyptian  notes,  which  appear  also  in  Plato  and  are 
more  and  more  apparent  in  Neoplatonism,  we  find  the  temper 
of  the  age  from  which  Christianity  sprang  despondent  as  it  looks 
out  on  human  nature,  and  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity  has  its 
roots  far  more  in  Hellenistic  than  in  Semitic  soil.*  In  the  teach- 
ing of  Plato  not  only  was  the  body  a  limitation  upon  pure 
knowledge,  but  even  the  psychic  process  so  far  as  it  dealt  with 
particulars.  Mystic  salvation  in  its  escape  from  particulars  into 
the  immediate  revelation  of  the  vision  exactly  corresponds  to  one 
phase  of  Plato's  hope.  So  that  more  than  once  we  face  an 
estimate  of  life  with  its  manifoldness  that  calls  itself  Christian, 
but  whose  real  roots  are  in  the  soil  of  Greece. 
"  On  the  formal  side  of  the  ethical  thinking  of  the  church,  both 
Aristotle  and  Plato  exercised  a  great  and  beneficent  influence. 
All  attempts  to  classify  the  virtues  and  to  reduce  to  systematic 
form  the  moral  life  and  its  demands  go  back  at  once  to  either 

'  Cf.  Timaeus,  69-71. 

*C/.  Stcinhart,  Karl:  "Platon's  Leben,"  Leipsic,  1873. 
•Apology  31,  32. 

'  C/.    Schultz,    H.:    " Alttcstamentliche   Theologie,"    5th   ed.,  pp.  493-5IX 
English  translation,  2  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1892;  vol.  II,  p.  24i-28a 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      17 

Plato  or  Aristotle  or  to  both.* .  In  the  early  chapters  Aristotle 
cannot  always  be  distinctly  traced,  and  again  it  is  Plato  with 
his  fourfold  division  of  the  virtues^  that  dominates  the  early 
thought.  In  the  attempt,  indeed,  to  fit  the  ethical  ideals  of 
Christianity  into  these  classic  forms  violence  has  often  to  be 
done  either  to  the  contents  or  to  the  forms.  Indeed  it  is  in 
following  up  this  effort  that  the  strong  contrast  between  the 
classic  and  the  Christian  ideals  comes  into  view.'  At  the  same 
time  it  was  from  Greek  and  Roman  models  that  early  Christian- 
ity learnt  what  it  knew  of  systematic  co-ordinated  thinking, 
and  the  strength  of  its  teaching  was  due  in  large  measure  to 
contact  with  the  flower  of  Greek  culture  in  the  works  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle. 

However  much  we  may  regret  the  confusions  that  arose  and 
that  still  persist  between  the  classic  and  the  Christian  interests, 
we  should  never  cease  to  be  grateful  for  the  intellectual  schooling 
given  the  early  church  by  contact  with  Grecian  dialectics. 

The  ethics  of  Plato  were  developed  in  the  midst  of  a  society 
commonly  called  democratic,  but  which  was  in  truth  a  small 
slave-holding  and  highly  aristocratically  governed  community. 
Plato  himself  belonged  to  the  most  highly  privileged  class  in 
the  state.  This  state  itself  was  rapidly  going  to  pieces  under  the 
burden  of  these  privileged  classes  and  under  the  strain  of  ex- 
ternal political  complications.  This  decay  was  patent  to  all  the 
thoughtful  elements  in  the  community.  The  "  Republic  "  of  Plato 
and  the  "  Laws,"  so  far  as  they  are  from  his  hand,  represent  an 
earnest  and  wonderfully  inspiring  attempt  to  suggest  a  new 
social  construction  to  arrest  the  decay.  On  its  purely  formal 
side  the  work  of  Plato  had  enormous  influence  upon  the  social 
dreaming  of  Augustine,  and  through  him  moulded,  in  larger 
measure  than  is  perhaps  generally  recognized,  the  great  Priest- 

'  As  in  Thomas  Aquinas. 

2  ffoipla  or  Wisdom,  dvdpla  or  Courage,  ffu4>poaivij  or  Temperance,  Self-con- 
trol, and  SiKaiofftivfj  or  Justice. 

^  Cf.  Schaubach:  "  Das  Verhaltniss  der  Moral  des  klassischen  Alterthums  zur 
christlichen  Theologie.    Theologische  Studien  und  Kritiken,"  1851,  pp.  59-121. 


i8  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

state  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Plato  was,  however,  far  from 
democratic  in  either  his  temper  or  his  hope.  At  the  same  time 
he  wished  for  an  aristocracy  of  the  noblest  and  an  aristocracy 
trained  for  its  work  of  self-sacrifice  and  duty  by  sacrifice  and 
service.  The  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  was  a  bold  attempt  on 
a  large  and  most  impressive  scale  to  realize  this  ideal.  The 
relative  success  of  the  experiment  was  due  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
linked  with  that  religious  enthusiasm  which  Plato  sought  to 
infuse  into  Athenian  life.^  And  the  history  of  the  attempt  goes 
far  to  justify  the  real  insight  of  the  great  philosopher. 

At  the  same  time  the  weaknesses  of  Plato's  ideals  were  bom 
of  the  very  social  organization  he  wished  to  redeem.  The 
aristocratic  type  of  thought  and  feeling  so  prominent  in  the 
small,  closely  organized  Greek  cities  reappears  in  the  priestly 
reconstruction  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  did  so  in  part,  at  least, 
under  the  influence  of  the  Platonic  conceptions  carried  over  by 
Augustine.  The  "Republic"  reflects  the  caste  spirit  which 
played  such  havoc  with  the  political  and  religious  ideals  of  the 
Old  Catholic  church,  and  which,  amid  all  semblance  of  democ- 
racy, even  to  this  day  give  to  the  ethics  of  the  Roman  Commun- 
ion an  aristocratic  character. 

II.      THE   HELLENISTIC   PREPARATION 

The  Grecian  life  that  is  most  plainly  reflected  in  our  earliest 
Christian  sources  is  not  that  of  either  the  Ionic  or  Attic  periods, 
but   that  which   since   Droysen  has  been  called   Hellenism.^ 

Literature  (in  addition  to  list  on  page  7/.  and  of  the  standard  histories  of 
Greece). — Droysen,  J.  G.:  "Geschichte  des  Hellcnismus";  2d  ed.;  3  vols.; 
Gotha,  1877-1878.— MahafTy,  J.  P.:  "The  Silver  Age  of  the  Greek  World"; 
Chicago,  1906. — Hatch,  Edwin:  "The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages 
upon  the  Christian  Church";  3d  ed.;  by  A.  M.  Fairbairn  (Hibbert  Lectures  for 
1888)  ;   London,  1891. — Zeller,  E.:   "Die  Philosophie  der  Gricchen";  vol.  III., 


'  Cf.  Windelband,  W.:  "Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie,"  4th  ed., 
1907,  p.  105.  English  translation,  "History  of  Philosophy,"  New  York,  1901, 
p.  127. 

*  Droysen,  J.  G.:  "Geschichte  des  Hellcnismus,"  3  vols.,  Gotha,  1877. 
See  Von  Wilamowitz-Mocllendorff:  "Gricchische  Literatur  des  Altertums" 
(Kultur  der  Gegcnwart,  I,  viii,  1907),  p.  84. 


THE  PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIANITY      19 

Greece  became  the  world's  teacher  when  her  culture  was  scat- 
tered over  all  known  lands  and  was  forced  upon  the  unwilling 
Orient  by  the  conquests  of  Macedonia.  Aristotle  was  Alexan- 
der's teacher,  but  the  pupil  had  greater  insight  into  the  actual 
possibilities  of  empire  than  even  his  teacher.  He  saw  that  a 
really  world-wide  empire  could  not  be  built  upon  the  basis  of 
the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  the  Greek  city.*  According  to 
Plutarch,  Aristotle  advised  Alexander  to  treat  the  Greeks  as 
friends  and  relations  and  the  barbarians  as  plants  and  animals.^ 
It  was  quite  as  impossible  to  build  empire  on  such  organization 
as  Athens  possessed  as  it  would  have  been  to  build  up  a  kingdom 
in  the  Middle  Ages  on  the  basis  of  the  free  city.  Athens  had  in 
309  B.  C.  a  population  of  21,000  free  citizens,  10,000  "strangers  " 
(^eW),  free  but  not  citizens,  and  400,000  slaves.*  The  result 
of  such  a  city  organization  was  the  intense  particularism  and 
the  haughty  patrician  pride  which  marked  the  free  cities  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  Such  a  spirit  is  as  far  removed  from  democ- 
racy as  the  east  is  from  the  west.  The  intellectual  conquest  of 
the  world  was  effected  only  when  this  organization  was  broken 
down,  and  Grecian  culture  like  Jewish  religion  had  become 
relatively  homeless.    Moreover,  this  conquest  was  effected,  like 

part  i;  Leipsic,  1903. — Rohde,  E.:  "Kleine  Schriften";  Tubingen,  1902 
(especially  "Die  Religion  der  Griechen");  in  2d  vol.,  pp.  335-336. — Siebeck,  H. : 
"Untersuchungen  zur  Philosophie  der  Griechen";  2d  ed.;  Freiburg,  1888. — 
Wendland,  P.:  "Christentum  und  Hellenismus  in  ihren  litterarischen  Bezie- 
hungen";  Leipsic,  1902;  and  "Die  hellenistisch-romische  Kultur  in  ihren 
Beziehungen  zu  Judentum  und  Christentum";  Tubingen,  1907. — v.  Wilamo- 
witz-Moellendorff:  "Geschichte  der  griechischen  Literatur  (in  der  Kultur  der 
Gegenwart");  Teil  I,  Abteilung  VIII,  pp.  3-238;  2d  ed.;  Berlin,  1907. — 
Cumont,  Fr. :  "Les  Religions  orientales  dans  le  paganisme  romain";  Paris, 
1906. — Deissmann,  G.  A.:  "Licht  vom  Osten";   2d  ed.;  Tiibingen,  1909. 

'  Droysen,  vol.  II,  pp.  15-17. 

*  Aristot.  apud  Plut.  de  fort.  Alexander  i,  6.  See  also  Aristotle,  "  Politics," 
I,  I,  quoted  by  Droysen. 

'  Boeckh's  "  Staatshaushaltung  der  Athener,"  4  Biicher  mit  Inschriften, 
Berlin  (ist  ed.,  1817;  3d  ed.,  by  Max  Fraenkel,  1886),  vol.  I,  p.  38,  based 
on  disputed  census  figures,  which,  however,  Droysen  accepts  as  accurate.  Cf. 
vol.  I,  §  III,  p.  429  of  ist  ed.,  1836.  (Translated  by  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  London. 
2  vols.,  1828,  2d  ed.,  1842.     Translated  by  A.  Lamb,  Boston,  1857,  2  vols.) 


20  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

the  political  conquests  of  Alexander,  by  skilful  use  of  the  forces 
of  the  antagonists.  The  result  was  that  with  Alexander  began 
that  cosmopolitanism  which  fitted  Greek  thought  to  the  condi- 
tions out  of  which  came  the  still  greater  world-empire  of  Rome. 
Indeed  the  history  of  Hellenism  stretches  on  into  the  intellectual 
life  of  Rome  under  the  Caesars.  Cicero  founded  an  empire  of 
thought  which  was  based  on  Hellenism,  and  which  contested 
with  the  Caesars  for  the  dominion  over  men's  minds,*  and  men 
sought  in  it  consolation  for  lost  national  freedom.  The  histo- 
rians before  Droysen  have  underestimated  the  achievements  of 
this  period,  when  science  and  speculation  became  the  possession 
of  an  enlarging  world.  Alexander  founded  over  seventy  cities 
or  trading  colonies,  and  thus  Hellenism  became  the  mother  of  the 
modem  city-development  and  taught  Rome  a  lesson  in  the 
organization  of  an  awakening  world. 

Ihis  cosmopolitanism  was  not  gained  without  sacrifice. 
Greece  lost  her  liberty,  and  the  world  of  Hellenism  is  over- 
shadowed by  the  greatness  of  this  loss.  The  unity  of  her 
thought  gave  way  to  a  unity  based  on  a  synthesis  of  many 
elements,  and  at  every  point  the  student  of  Hellenic  art  or  litera- 
ture marks  concessions  to  the  synthetic  character  of  the  whole 
movement.  Into  this  synthesis  enter  three  elements  that  have 
especial  bearing  upon  the  ethics  of  Christianity.  It  is  a  period  of 
philosophic  adaptation  that  is  often  rather  conglomerate  than 
an  organized  philosophic  whole.  During  this  time  is  born  a 
popular  religious  philosophy  with  many  elements  drawn  from 
oriental  cults,  and  it  is  during  this  era  that  an  oriental  mysticism 
brings  forth  its  full  fruit,  and  is  itself  ennobled  and  purified  by 
Hellenistic  thought.  This  philosophic  synthesis  involved  all 
possible  combinations  drawn  from  the  teachings  of  the  Academy, 
the  Peripatetics,  the  Stoa,  and  from  Epicurus  as  well  as  from  the 
scepticism  of  the  Middle  Academy  and  the  mysticism  of  Neo- 
platonism.  The  Stoicism  which  conquered  Rome  and  became 
the  religion  of  Epictetus,  Seneca,  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  was 

'  Cf.  Cicero's  own  statement  of  his  ambition  in  "De  Divinatione,"  liber  II, 

5§   I.    2. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      21 

mingled  with  the  popular  teaching  of  the  Cynics  *  and  the 
scepticism  of  Carneades.  Panaetius  the  Rhodian^  (112  B.  C.) 
Stoic  rejected  astrological  prophecies,  and  the  Middle  Academy 
permanently  influenced  the  stoic  doctrine  of  causation.'  Into 
this  synthesis  entered  also  elements  drawn  from  oriental 
dualism  with  its  fundamentally  pessimistic  outlook  upon  life. 
Thus  we  find  already  in  Hellenism  the  struggle  between  a 
metaphysical  monotheism  and  an  ethical  dualism  which  torments 
Christian  thinking  to  this  day.*  This  dualism  marked  the  Stoi- 
cism which  became  the  religion  of  the  intelligent  and  which  un- 
dermined the  vulgar  polytheism,  not  by  attacking  it  as  did  the 
Epicureans,  but  by  explaining  it  away. 

The  drift  of  this  synthesis  was  toward  pantheistic  monothe- 
ism. Rohde  has,  indeed,  vigorously  denied  that  the  Greek  mind 
had  a  tendency  to  monotheism,^  but  in  the  intellectual  struggles 
of  the  various  schools  metaphysical  speculation  led  inevitably  to 
monism.  Indeed  it  became  only  a  matter  of  the  degree  of  culture 
in  the  various  individuals  how  they  combined  this  metaphysical 
monotheism  with  the  popular  polytheism.  It  was  Stoicism  that 
most  skilfully  wove  together  the  ethical  with  the  philosophical 
and  religious  interests,  and  thus  became,  as  we  shall  see,  even  in 
Christian  history,  a  substitute  for  an  ethics  based  on  the  inspira- 
tions of  the  New  Testament.  In  spite  of  its  wide  hold  on 
cultivated  minds.  Epicureanism  was  from  the  beginning  un- 
sympathetic to  Christian  feeling.  It  was  more  distinctly  anti- 
religious  in  the  sense  of  conscious  insistence  upon  mental  illu- 
mination as  over  against  vulgar  religious  forms.*  Whereas 
Christian  feeling  at  its  best  never  placed  the  emphasis  upon  in- 

*  C/.  Wendland,  P.:    "Die  hellenistisch-romische  Kultur."     Tubingen,  pp. 

39-5°- 

^  See  Cicero's  "De  Divinatione,"  Liber  II,  §  42. 

'  C/.  Windelband:  "Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie."  Tubingen, 
1907,  pp.  163-173.     English   translation,  New  York,  1901,  pp.  197-209. 

*  Cf.  Windelband:  "  Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie."  Tubingen, 
1907,  p.  158.     English  translation,  New  York,  1901,  p.  190. 

*"Kleine  Schriften,"  vol.  II,  p.  320. 

*  Cf.  Windelband:  "Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie,"  4th  ed., 
1907,  pp.  141,  142.     English  translation,  New  York,  1901,  pp.  170,  171. 


22  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

tellectual  illumination.  It  was  also  more  readily  misunderstood 
in  its  hedonism.  For  although  it  was  in  essence  no  more 
hedonistic  than  Stoicism,  yet  its  definition  of  pleasure  was  more 
openly  sensuous  and  more  deliberately  aesthetic  than  was  com- 
patible with  the  sterner  puritanism  of  early  Christianity.  Its 
very  attempt  to  rescue  human  responsibility  by  detaching  con- 
duct from  a  central  power  was  not  fitted  to  appeal  to  the  aroused 
religious  hope.' 

The  Cynic-Stoic  movement  appealed  most  directly  to  the  life 
that  needed  hope,  consolation,  and  direction  as,  under  the  storms 
of  war,  old  institutions,  old  faiths,  and  old  altars  went  down. 

At  the  same  time  this  very  factor  in  the  history  of  stoic  ethics 
accounts  in  part  for  the  extreme  individualism  that  often  limited 
its  influence.  Both  Cynic  and  Stoic  placed  the  individual  in  the 
centre  of  ethical  interest.  No  considerations  of  either  state  or 
religious  community  could  interfere  with  individual  enlightened 
man  doing  that  which  advanced  his  own  peace.  Virtue  was  the 
satisfaction  of  the  individual  soul's  longing  for  happiness. 
Cynicism  went  often  the  full  length,^  but  Stoicism  also,  like 
Epicureanism,  had  ever  "happiness"  conceived  of  as  the  peace 
of  the  individual  in  the  foreground. 

It  is  not  accurate  to  say  that  it  was  Christianity  that  discovered 
the  individual.  Individualism  came  with  cosmopolitanism;  and 
Stoicism  rather  than  Christianity  formulated  it  for  all  ages. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  Hellenistic  Stoicism  was  distinctly 
aristocratic — and  not  even  the  popular  preaching  of  the  Cynics 
ever  raised  Hellenistic  thought  to  the  point  of  ascribing  to  every 
individual  as  such  inherent  value.  The  "wise"  were  those  who 
fought  their  way  into  subjection  of  the  world  by  trained  indiffer- 
ence to  the  lower  delights.  But  this  way  was  only  open  to  the 
few.  Literary  Stoicism  as  we  know  it  retained  to  the  last  this 
aristocratic  character,  even  in  the  Christian  edition  of  it  by 

'  Q".  Schmidt,  L.:  "Die  Ethik  der  alten  Griechen,"  vol.  I,  pp.  287,  288. 
Where,  however,  he  warns  against  the  superficial  treatment  of  Epicurus's  doctrine 
in  the  classic  passages  "Diogenes  Laertius,"  10,  133,  and  "Cicero  de  Fato," 
9,  18;   10,  23,  and  "  De  Natura  Deorum,"  i,  25,  69. 

'  C/.  Schmidt,  L.:    "Die  Ethik  der  alten  Griechen,"  vol.  II,  pp.  448-451. 


THE  PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIANITY      23 

Ambrose  of  Milgji.  The  slave  Epictetus,  whose  teaching 
savors  less  than  the  others  of  this  intellectual  aristocracy,  yet  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  ruling  caste  as  we  see  from  his  complaints 
of  the  luxury  and  idleness  of  his  hearers/  In  Panaetius,  in 
Cicero,  in  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Seneca  the  ethics  are  those  of 
men  separated  deliberately  from  the  crowd,  seeking  consolation 
amidst  the  disappointments  in  life  in  the  consciousness  of  lonely 
victory  over  the  world.  So  that  a  distinctly  pharisaic  element 
enters  easily  into  its  spirit. 

At  the  same  time  literary  Stoicism  did  not  constitute  the  whole 
of  the  movement.  It  could  not  have  had  as  a  philosophy  any 
great  influence  over  the  average  life.  Literary  Stoicism  reveals 
almost  no  contact  with  the  moral  difificulties  and  struggles  of  the 
small  trader  or  the  petty  agriculturist,  who  after  all  formed  the 
great  bulk  of  the  population.  There  was,  however,  a  popular  as 
well  as  a  literary  Stoicism,  and  to  understand  its  influence  we 
must  go  to  the  Stoic-Cynic  propaganda  in  sermon  and  tract, 
and  must  remember  how  wide  was  the  scope  of  Greek  ed- 
ucation.^ 

This  popular  Stoicism  was  a  combination  made  from  elements 
taken  from  all  the  schools  of  Grecian  thought,  and  such  a  combi- 
nation was  made  the  more  easily  because,  marked  as  were  the 
differences  in  the  metaphysical  constructions,  they  had  on  the 
ethical  field  distinct  characteristics  common  to  them  all.    They 
were  all  hedonistic.     The  resolute  attainment  of  the  highest/ 
happiness  was  the  goal  for  the  Academy  and  the  Stoa,  for  the\ 
Epicurean  and  the  Lyceum.     They  were  all  highly  individualis- 
tic.    The  communal  interests  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  wellnigh 
disappear  as  the  Greek  city-state  gave  way  to  oriental  empire. 
They  were  all  deeply  intellectualistic.     Any  redemption  must 
come  with  knowledge,  and  however  differently  this  knowledge 
was   conceived,   whether   as   magic   illumination   or   scientific', 
insight,  it  was  the  sine  qua  non  of  all  ethical  living.     They  all 

'  Epictetus:   "Enchiridion,"  cap.  I,  6. 

*  Cf.  Wendland,  P.,  in  loc.  cit.,  and  Ussing,  J.  L. :  "Erziehung  und  Jugend- 
unterricht  bei  den  Griechen  und  Romern,"  new  ed.,  Berlin,  1885. 


24  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

saw  in  proud  resistance  to  evil  the  mark  of  the  ethical  life 
(ciTapa^ia).^ 
]  It  is  easy  both  to  overestimate  and  underestimate  the  ethics 
of  this  popular  Stoicism.  Its  weakness  was  primarily  that  it 
taught  resignation  in  the  midst  of  evils  where  resignation  is  not 
in  place.  Its  goal  was  individual  extrication  rather  than  a 
kingdom  of  righteous  conditions.  Its  conception  of  law  was 
high,  but  was  legal  and  mechanical,  and  like  all  attempts  to 
build  an  ethics  upon  pantheism,  its  code  was  rigid  and  cold, 
lacking  alike  in  contact  with  the  longings  of  the  heart  and  the 
hopes  of  the  mind.  It  gave  the  world  seekers  after  God,  but 
inspired  to  resignation  rather  than  transforming  faith,  and 
rather  drew  men  out  of  the  world  than  flung  them  upon  the 
world  for  its  transformation. 

Into  this  popular  Stoicism  came  also  other  than  intellectual 
elements.  Wilamowitz  has  pointed  out  ^  that  the  Hellenistic 
period  was  one  of  scientific  triumph,  compared  to  which  the  time 
of  the  Roman  emperors  was  one  of  decay.  No  less  must  we 
insist  that  it  was  a  time  of  great  moral  uplift  and  religious 
revival. 

As  in  all  religious  revivals,  many  strange  elements  entered  into 
the  movement.  The  very  force  and  freshness  of  religious  inspira- 
tion resents  intellectual  analysis,  and  so  is  apt  to  admit  uncriti- 
cally the  most  foreign  elements.^ 

The  fierce  invective  of  Christian  apology  has  blinded  men  too 
easily  to  the  real  good  in  the  age.  Hatch  says:  "It  is  ques- 
tionable whether  the  average  morality  of  civilized  ages  has 
largely  varied  .  .  .  and  it  is  probable  on  a  priori  grounds  and 
from  the  nature  of  the  evidence  which  remains,  that  there  was  in 
ancient  Rome,  as  there  is  in  modern  London,  a  preponderating 
mass  of  those  who  loved  their  children  and  their  homes,  who  were 

'  Cy.  Windelband:  "Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie,"  4th  ed., 
1907,  p.  136.     English  translation,  New  York,  1901,  p.  165. 

'  "Die  griechische  Literatur  dcs  Altertums"  ("  Kultur  der  Gegenwart,"  I,  viii), 
2d  ed.,  1907,  p.  84. 

*  C/.  Cumont,  F. :   "Les  religions  orientales,"  1906,  pp.  197-235. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      25 

good  neighbors  and  faithful  friends."  ^  This  revived  ethical  and 
religious  interest  sought  satisfaction  in  the  strange  and  ancient 
cults  of  the  Orient. 

Philosophy  had  to  become  a  teaching  of  redemption,  and  in 
making  the  change  from  the  cool  seclusion  of  the  schools  to 
the  heats  of  the  street,  oriental  mystic  rites  and  the  authority 
of  hoary  antiquity  had  no  small  part  in  the  transformation. 
Even  in  "  men  like  Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  the 
Stoic  teaching  had  become  completely  a  philosophy  of  redemp- 
tion." ^  Much  more  do  we  find  the  Hellenistic-Roman  world 
overrun  by  all  sorts  of  religions  proclaiming  redemption. 

The  age  was,  of  course,  a  curious  mingling  of  gross  supersti- 
tion and  highly  modern  types  of  thought.'  But  the  age  sought 
redemption.  The  immediate  experience  of  evil,  of  a  world 
to  be  overcome,  of  misery  and  dissatisfaction,  called  for  ex- 
planation and  relief.  The  simplest  explanation  is  that  matter 
is  evil  and  spirit  is  good.  This  never  was  a  Greek  conception. 
But  the  religions  to  which  it  gave  birth  soon  affected  Greek 
thought. 

Into  the  Hellenistic  world  had  come  in  early  days  the  foreign 
ungrecian  cult  of  Dionysus,  with  its  dances,  mystery,  ecstasy, 
its  uplift  to  divine  life  even  if  only  in  the  single  moment  of  rapt 
enthusiasm.  Thrace  also  gave  the  Orphic  cult  with  its  mystic 
redemption,  and  in  their  inception,  like  all  mysticism  when  pure 
and  logical,  these  cults  were  non-ethical.  The  redemption  was 
conceived  of  as  physical  and  psychical  uplift  into  the  very  being 
of  God.  But  these  were  only  forerunners  of  the  mystic  cults 
that  made  the  Hellenistic  world  a  strange  conglomerate  of 
Grecian  philosophy  and  oriental  religion.  The  great  advance 
was  the  ethical  transformation  of  these  cults,  and  then  ennobling 

'  Hatch,  Edwin:  "The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon  the 
Christian  Church,"  3d  ed.,  London,  1891,  pp.  139,  140.  C/.  also  Friedlander, 
"Darstellungen  aus  der  Sittengeschichte  Roms,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  676/".,  c/.  sth  ed. 

^  Windelband:  "Lehrbuch  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,"  4th  ed.,  1907, 
p.  176.     English  translation,  New  York,  1901,  p.  213. 

'  Cf.  the  scepticism  of  the  Middle  Academy,  and  the  modern  spirit  of  the 
second  part  of  Cicero's  "De  Divinatione,"  Liber  II,  §§  3,  4,  5,  59,  etc. 


26  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

of  them  by  making  them  schools  for  self-restraint  and  entrances 
into  the  life  of  avowed  fidelity  to  duty/  The  Greek  mind  could 
not  be  content  with  a  non-intellectual  transformation  of  life. 
The  Stoicism  of  the  Hellenistic  period  clung  to  the  overcoming 
of  the  world  by  knowledge,  but  added  to  it  the  asceticism  char- 
acteristic of  oriental  dualism.  Yet  even  the  asceticism  of 
Hellenism  had  an  intellectual  character.  One  of  the  most 
valuable  lessons  it  taught  as  a  preparation  for  the  higher  ethics 
of  Christianity  was  the  intellectual  honesty  which  insisted  upon 
rationalizing  even  the  rites  and  mysteries  given  primarily  on 
authority  (Neoplatonism). 

The  longing  for  immortality  fixed  upon  these  rites  and  mys- 
teries and  united  with  them  the  philosophical  speculations  of  the 
earlier  period.'  It  was  this  period  which  formulated  and  in- 
trenched in  human  thought  many  of  the  most  lasting  conceptions 
of  immortality,  last  judgments,  and  heaven  and  hell.^ 

From  Persia  came  the  cult  that,  profoundly  modified,  no  doubt, 
by  its  contact  with  Hellenism,  was  yet  as  the  Mithras  cult  to  give 
the  Roman  soldier  his  religion,*  and  many  rites  and  superstitions 
to  the  Christian  church  (see  page  190). 

It  was,  perhaps,  the  fundamental  weakness  of  Greek  and 
Roman  paganism  that  its  mythology,  and  its  physical  and  meta- 
physical character  hindered  the  development  of  a  religion  essen- 

'  CJ.  Rohde:  "Die  Religion  der  Griechen,"  p.  334,  vol.  II,  of  "  Kleine  Schrif- 
ten,"  1902. 

*  Cy.  Rohde,  Erwin:  "Psyche;  Seelenkult  und  Unsterblichkeitsglaube  der 
Griechen,"  4th  ed.,  2  vols.,  Tubingen,  1907. 

'  In  Plato's  description  of  last  judgment  in  the  "  Republic,"  book  X,  614-621 
(Steph.  ed.). 

*C/.  Cumont,  Fr.:  "Texte  et  Monuments  figures  relatifs  aux  Myst^res  de 
Mithra."  BruxcUes,  1896,  1899,  2  vols,  (especially  the  introduction).  Also 
Cumont's  article  in  Roscher's  "  Lexikon  der  griechischen  und  romischen  My- 
thologie,"  vol.  2  (1894-1897),  and  his  "  Religions  Orientalcs,"  Paris,  1907  (in 
"  Annales  du  Mus6e  Guimet  ").  Lajarde,  "  Recherches  sur  le  cult  public  et  les 
myst^res  de  Mithra  en  Orient  et  en  Occident,"  1867.  Donsbach,  "Die  raum- 
liche  Verbreitung  und  zeitliche  Bcgrcnzung  dcs  Mithrasdienstes  im  romischen 
Reich,"  BrQnn,  1897.  See  a  condensed  account  in  Dill,  S.:  "Roman  Society 
from  Nero  to  Marcus  Aurelius,"  London,  1904,  pp.  547-626.  Dieterich,  A.: 
"Eine  Mithrasliturgie,"  Leipsic,  1903. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY       27 

tially  ethical  in  character/  by  constantly  putting  the  emphasis  on 
other  factors.  How  could  cults  that  culminated  in  the  worship 
of  the  Emperor  give  to  the  national  life  a  religion  primarily 
ethical  ?  The  mystery  became,  however,  a  rite  of  purification 
whos%  origin  indeed  was  magic  separation  of  the  divine  from 
the  human  and  whose  purification  was  thought  of  as  physical. 
But  as  it  is  seen  in  the  Hellenistic-Roman  world  it  has  an  ethical 
character.  And  that  feature  of  it  seems  to  have  undergone  a 
rapid  and  wholesome  development.  Especially  the  Mithras 
cult  seems  to  have  placed  the  emphasis  upon  a  really  ethical 
purification,  and  so  become  an  ethical  religion  of  high  value  in  the 
Hellenistic-Roman  world,  Cumont  thinks  Renan's  judgment 
extreme,  that  if  the  triumph  of  Christianity  had  not  come  the 
world  would  have  been  "Mithradized."  ^  At  all  events,  it  is 
certain  that  the  cult  centred  about  a  struggle  for  the  higher  life 
by  virtuous  living  and  brave  purification  of  the  soul  from  baser 
elements.  That  in  the  later  Roman  world  it  was  a  serious, 
perhaps  the  most  serious,  rival  which  Christianity  had  is  certain, 
and  it  was  in  so  many  ways  so  like  Christianity  that,  oblivious  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  much  older  than  the  Christian  church,  the 
Christian  apologists  regarded  it  as  a  base  imitation  by  the  help 
of  the  devil.'  This  cult  was  only  one  of  the  forms  under  which 
the  Orient  influenced  both  the  outward  rite  and  the  inward  life 
of  the  period.'*  The  real  groundwork  of  orientalism,  as  thus 
seen,  is  dualistic,  and  as  Rohde  says,  "the  unmutilated  (un- 
entstellte)  pantheism  of  the  Stoic  .  .  .  knows  no  mystic  and  no 

'  Cf.  Tzschirner,  H.  G.:  "Der  Fall  des  Heidenthums,"  ed.  by  C.  W.  Niedner, 
1829,  pp.  13-164.  Bollinger:  "Heidenthum  und  Judenthum,  Vorhalle  zur 
Geschichte  des  Christenthums,"  Regensburg,  1857.  Schiirer,  E.:  "Geschichte 
des  jiidischen  Volkes,"  3  vols.,  1901,  1898.  For  full  literature,  see  vol.  Ill  (1898), 
p.  109.     English  translation. 

*  "On  peut  dire  que,  si  le  Christianisme  edt  dte  arrete  dans  sa  croissance  par 
quelque  maladie  mortelle,  le  monde  eut  ^te  mithriaste,"  Renan,  "Marc-AurHe, 
et  la  fin  du  monde  antique,"  3d  ed.,  Paris,  1882,  p.  579. 

'  TertuUian,  "De  Corona,"  15.  "De  Praescriptione  Hseret,"  40.  "Justin 
Martyr  Apol.,"  i,  66. 

*  For  an  eloquent  presentation  of  the  influence,  see  Cumont's  "Les  religions 
orientales,"  pp.  1-23  and  237-254. 


28  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

redemption/  but  such  contradictions  exist  in  every  age,  and 
have  never  seriously  hindered  the  most  striking  combinations. 
So  in  the  Hellenistic-Roman  world  pantheism  and  dualism  play 
each  a  part  and  live  in  relative  peace  with  each  other.  Com- 
promises of  the  most  startling  character  were  common.*-  So 
that  in  the  popular  religious  cults  differences,  even  of  a  far- 
reaching  character,  if  only  confined  to  the  philosophical  ground- 
work,  exerted  little  divisive  force. 

It  is  most  unfortunate  that  we  have  so  little  trustworthy 
information  about  these  religions  of  the  humble.  The  evidence 
of  extensive  guild  and  trade  combinations  under  the  guise  of 
religious  associations,  and  of  the  economic  character  of  many  of 
these  cults  is  overwhelming.  One  need  not  go  as  far  as  Osborne 
Ward  in  his  utterly  uncritical  treatment,'  yet  the  proletarian 
character  of  these  religious  mysteries  explains  on  the  one  hand 
the  few  remains  of  any  literary  character,  and  on  the  other  the 
tremendous  hold  they  exercised  upon  the  starved  imagination  of 
the  poor. 

For  the  wealthy  and  intelligent  class  Stoicism  became  "a 
religion  raised  upon  the  ruins  of  popular  polytheism,"  *  and  for 
the  humble  and  unlearned  the  oriental  cult  or  the  Hellenic 
mystery  furnished  food  for  the  religious  and  ethical  life,  the 
ethical  elements  being  largely  borrowed  from  philosophy.' 

In  a  later  chapter  (page  129)  we  shall  have  occasion  to  deal 
more  fully  with  Neoplatonism  in  connection  with  the  struggle 
in  the  church  against  Gnosticism.     It  will  be  sufficient  here  to 

»  "  Kleine  Schriften,"  vol.  II,  p.  335. 

'  Cicero  says:  "And  the  habits  of  reverence  for,  and  the  discipline  and  rights 
of,  the  augurs,  and  the  authority  of  the  college,  are  still  retained  for  the  sake  of 
their  influence  on  the  minds  of  the  common  people."  "  De  Divinatione,"  Lib. 
n,  §  33.     Mueller's  ed.,  IV,  vol.  II,  p.  222. 

'  Ward,  C.  Osborne:  "The  Ancient  Lowly,"  2  vols.,  reprint  by  Kerr,  Chicago, 
1907. 

*  Quotation  from  the  admirable  sketch  in  Weber's  "History  of  Philosophy," 
pp.  140-148  of  the  English  translation,  New  York,  1903. 

•It  is  only  fitting  to  call  attention  to  the  work  of  Dcissmann,  of  Berlin,  upon 
the  relation  of  inscriptions  to  the  life  of  the  lowly.  In  his  "  Licht  vom  Osten," 
1909. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY      29 

point  out  the  history  of  those  elements  that  so  seriously  affected 
pagan  thinking,  and  which  most  definitely  marked  its  ethics  in 
the  teachings  of  Neoplatonism. 

Plato,  as  we  have  seen  (page  13),  never  completely  separated 
between  soul  and  body  in  the  sense  common  to  early  Christianity.; 
The  relation  also  of  Plato  to  matter,  although  touched  by  the 
Pythagoreanism  that  influenced  his  later  thought,  never  really 
leaves  the  Greek  ground. 

Neopythagoreanism,  however,  fully  taught  the  distinctively 
oriental  dualism  of  mind  and  matter,  and  insisted  upon  the 
essential  evil  of  the  vXv  as  over  against  the  principle  of  spirit 
as  good.*  In  this  attitude  toward  matter  Stoicism  itself  was 
influenced  by  the  oriental  intrusion  and  the  optimism  of  the 
older  Stoics  in  the  matter  of  the  attainment  of  the  ideal  gave  way 
in  the  later  Stoicism  to  the  despondent  view  of  the  inherent  evil 
of  all  men  because  still  in  the  body.^  The  attitude  toward 
matter  became  in  Neopythagoreanism  and  Neoplatonism  that 
of  hostility  as  the  seat  of  evil,  and  redemption  was  almost 
grossly  conceived  of  as  separation  of  soul  and  body;  but  in  con- 
nection with  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  mere 
death  was  not  redemption.  The  psyche  had  to  be  trained  for 
its  non-material  life.'  In  various  degrees  this  training  was 
thought  of  ethically  or  physically.  And  thus  there  grew  up 
those  Neoplatonic  systems  which  deeply  impressed  even  into 
our  own  day  the  Christian  church's  teaching  with  regard  to  soul 
and  body. 

'  Cf.  interesting  discussion  of  Plato  as  mystic  in  Wundt,  Max:  "Geschichte 
der  griechischen  Ethik,"  pp.  450-494,  and  especially  454-462,  Leipsic,  1908. 

'  Windelband:  "  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,"  1907,  p.  192  and  note.  English 
translation,  New  York,  1901,  p.  231  and  note  2. 

*  The  beautiful  work  of  Rohde  in  this  field  has  already  been  often  quoted  and 
used. 


30  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

III.      THE   ROMAN   PREPARATION 

It  is  impossible  to  separate  between  the  Roman  world  of 
thought  and  that  of  Hellenism  so  far  as  these  worlds  are  intellect- 
ual systems.  Rome  simply  accepted  the  teaching  of  Greece  and 
from  the  point  of  view  of  thought  added  little  or  nothing. 

At  the  same  time  the  adaptation  of  Hellenistic  cosmopolitan- 
ism to  the  needs  of  a  proud  world-imperialism  could  not  leave  the 
systems  of  ethics  founded  upon  this  cosmopolitanism  untouched. 
Cicero's  "De  Officiis  "  may  be  little  more  than  a  translation  from 
the  Greek,  but  the  actual  ethics  of  Cicero  show  plainly,  even  in 
the  confusions,  how  the  world  of  imperial  ambitions  amidst  which 
he  lived  deeply  influenced  his  ethical  thinking.  It  was  not  un- 
natural that  Cicero  should  give,  through  Ambrose's  adaptation, 
an  ethics  to  the  young  ecclesiastical  empire. 

The  Roman  contribution  to  the  ethics  of  Christianity  was 
therefore  rather  in  giving  the  preparation  for  a  world-wide 
claim  and  in  bridging  the  gulf  between  law  and  ethics. 

In  Roman  life  the  "munia"  or  duties  of  citizenship  lay  at  the 
basis  of  the  whole  ethical  development.^  The  ethics  were  pro- 
nouncedly communal,  and  morals  were  organized  life.  If  this 
led  easily  to  legalism  and  externalism,  it  also  gave  fibre  and 
strength  to  the  whole  social  structure,  and  as  the  early  church 
became  the  heir  to  Rome's  imperial  inheritance,  she  also  took 
over  a  good  share  of  Rome's  legal  ethics  and  her  overestimate 
of  external  conformity  to  a  given  order.^     Rome  spared  the 

Literature. — Mommsen,  Theodor:  "Romische  Geschichte"  (especially 
vol.  I). — Cicero,  M.  T. :  Complete  works;  edited  by  Miiller;  Leipsic,  1905  (espe- 
cially 4th  section,  vols.  I,  II,  and  III). — Dill,  S.:  "Roman  Society  from  the  Time 
of  Nero  to  Marcus  Aurelius";  London,  1905. — Juvenal:  "The  Satires." — 
Renan,  Ernest:  "Marc-Aurdle  et  la  fin  du  monde  antique";  3d  ed.;  Paris, 
1882. — Ferrero,  G.:  "The  Rise  and  Decline  of  the  Roman  Empire";  5  vols.; 
English  translation  by  Zimmern;  New  York,  1907-1909. — v.  Jhering,  R.:  "Der 
Gcist  des  romischen  Rechts  auf  den  verschiedencn  Stufen  seiner  Entwickclung"; 
Leipsic,  1891;    5th  cd. 

'  Kuhn,  Emil:    "Die  stiitische  und  biirgerliche  Verfassung  des  romischen 

Reichs  bis  auf  die  Zeiten  Justinians,"  Leipsic,  1864,  1865,  2  vols.,  part  i,  pp.  7  jf. 

'  Cy.  Mommsen,  Theodor:    "Romische  Geschichte,"  vol.  V,  pp.  570-576. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      31 

internal  legal  arrangements  of  conquered  states  as  much  as  was 
possible.  But  the  process  by  which  she  reduced  to  fundamental 
uniformity  the  various  provinces  was  an  exhibition  of  consum- 
mate instinctive  governing  power/  This  process,  however,  in- 
volved changes  in  her  own  constitution  and  life.  Her  religion 
suffered  most  drearily  under  the  constantly  increasing  complica- 
tion of  her  superstitions,^  and  became  more  and  more  distinct 
from  her  ethics  and  social  order. 

Upon  the  ethics  of  ecclesiastical  Christianity,  however,  Rome 
left  the  stamp  of  her  institutionalism.  To  this  day  duty  to  the 
organization,  and  the  obligation  of  conformity  even  against 
the  personal  judgment,  is  at  once  an  institutional  and  political 
strength  and  a  religious  and  ethical  weakness  of  the  commun- 
ion which  still  bears  the  name  of  Rome. 

The  ethics  underlying  Roman  law  was  never  Christian  and 
remains  substantially  Stoic  up  to  its  very  last  formulation  in  the 
code  of  Napoleon.  Even  when  it  passes  for  Christian  law  it 
soon  appears  to  the  really  Christian  student  that  he  is  dealing 
with  the  exalted  conceptions  of  Stoicism,  but  not  with  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount.^  The  eclecticism  characteristic  of  all  Roman 
thought,  and  particularly  of  Cicero,  enabled  the  later  Roman 
men  to  take  up  Christian  elements  into  their  thinking,  and  thus 
to  make  a  body  of  conceptions,  often  really  hostile  to  Christian 
thinking,  seemingly  acceptable.  No  one  could  be  more  pro- 
nouncedly pagan  than  was  Cicero,  but  Ambrose's  edition  of  his 
ethics  passes  for  Christian  into  our  own  age. 

And  on  the  side  of  Rome's  organization  the  influence  upon 
Christian  ethics  was  simply  overwhelming.  The  Roman 
Catholic  church  became  the  heir  of  Rome's  imperial  policy  and 
imperial  ideals.  Rome  ruled  by  a  judicious  assertion  of  author- 
ity, stern  and  relentless  where  her  sway  seemed  in  any  way  in- 
volved, with  the  largest  and  most  amazing  concessions  to  in- 

'  Cy.   Marquardt,   1.:    "Romische   Staatsverwaltung,"    ad   ed.,   vol.   I,   pp. 

497-567- 

*  C/.  Marquardt,  I.:  "Romische  Staatsverwaltung,"  2d  ed.  (revised  by 
Georg  Wissowa),  Leipsic,  1881-1885,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  1-480. 

*  C/.  von  Jhering:    "Geist  des  Romischen  Rechts,"  vol.  I. 


32  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

dividual  differences  where  her  authority  was  taken  for  granted. 
This  has  marked  the  temper  of  historical  Christianity  ever  since, 
and  even  in  modern  Protestantism  (as  in  the  state  churches  of 
England  and  Germany)  still  gives  the  model  for  imitation,  often 
unconsciously. 

Nor  is  it  a  matter  of  indifference  that  Rome  supplied  the 
sacred  language  in  which  Christian  ecclesiasticism  was  to  do  its 
thinking.  More  than  once  in  the  course  of  our  history  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  mark  the  fact  that  the  use  of  Latin  has  a  distinct 
and  interesting  influence  upon  the  development  of  the  ethics  of 
Christianity. 

IV.      THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREPARATION 

What  gives  the  ethics  of  the  Old  Testament  its  peculiar  char- 
acter and  universal  significance  is  not  simply  its  "  desire  to  keep 
the  flame  of  a  pure  service  of  God  alight,"  *  nor  yet  its  monothe- 
ism, but  its  linking  its  ethics  with  its  conception  of  God,  and 
making  the  communal  life  the  field  for  the  exhibition  of  the 
qualities  of  the  God  the  community  worshipped. 

Just  so  soon  as  God  was  conceived  of  as  final  righteousness, 
even  if  the  type  of  that  righteousness  was  often  poor  and  low. 

Literature. — See  the  literature  given  in  Driver,  S.  R.:  "An  Introduction  to 
the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament";  8th  ed.,  1909. — Smith,  H.  P.:  "Old 
Testament  History";  New  York,  1903  (see  literature  in  the  Preface). — Wade, 
G.  W.:  "Old  Testament  History";  London,  1901;  pp.  x-xii. — Kent,  C.  F.: 
"The  Student's  Old  Testament";  New  York;  4  vols,  so  far  published,  1904, 
1905,  1907,  1910;  classified  bibliography  in  appendices  to  each  volume. — Well- 
hausen,  Julius:  "Israelitische  und  jiidische  Geschichte";  Berlin,  1901. — ■ 
Winckler,  Hugo:  "Geschichte  Israels";  Berlin,  1895-1900;  2  vols. — Cornill, 
C.  H.:  "Der  Israelitische  Prophetismus";  five  lectures;  Strasburg,  1900. — 
The  articles  in  Cheyne's  "Encyclopaedia  Biblica"  and  Hastings's  "Bible  Dic- 
tionary," as  well  as  the  standard  commentaries  on  the  various  books,  good  lists 
of  which  are  given  by  Kent  in  the  volumes  mentioned.  A  good  introduction  to 
modern  Bible  study  is  Briggs,  C.  A.:  "General  Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
Holy  Scripture";  New  York,  1899. — Schultz,  H.:  "  Alttestamentliche  Theolo- 
gie";  5th  ed.;  Tubingen,  1896;  English  translation,  Edinburgh,  1S92;  2  vols. — 
Duff,  A.:    "The  Theology  and  Ethics  of  the  Hebrews";    New  York,  1902. 

'  Curtius:  "Gesammeltc  Reden,"  Berlin,  1882,  vol.  H,  pp.  2  and  9,  quoted 
by  Zieglcr:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik,"  2d  cd.,  Strasburg,  1892,  p.  14. 


THE   PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      S3 

and  the  demand  was  made  that  the  community  should  show  its 
fidehty  to  its  divinity  by  conforming  to  that  type  of  righteousness, 
the  way  was  at  last  open  for  a  boundlessly  fruitful  ethical 
development. 

In  all  religions  God  is  linked  to  his  people  by  some  bond.  In 
Judaism  at  last  this  bond  was  interpreted  in  terms  of  the  ethical 
life  and  in  prophetism  at  its  best  in  terms  exclusively  ethical.^ 
Thus  at  last  the  communal  life  was  given  not  merely  a  political 
or  legal,  but  an  ethical  content,  and  it  was  more  and  more  clearly 
realized  that  the  communal  life  was  conditioned  upon  fulfilling 
righteousness.  On  the  lowest  plane  this  righteousness  might  be 
thought  of  as  simply  ritual  correctness,  a  type  of  magic  cleanness, 
but  this  never  held  the  whole  field  of  even  the  most  priestly 
Jewish  vision.  It  might  be  true  that  a  ritual  development  gave 
a  certain  character  to  the  ethics  of  Israel,  but  it  never  wholly 
dominated  them. 

The  ethical  development  cannot  be  traced  as  a  simple  matter 
of  chronology,  for  the  documents  only  permit  of  tentative  recon- 
structions of  the  history,  and  these  reconstructions  show  that 
various  developments  were  going  on  side  by  side. 

Two  main  lines  of  development  may  be  called  the  prophetic 
and  the  priestly.  The  school  of  the  Deuteronomists  sought  to 
make  a  synthesis  of  these  two  main  types,  and  later  the  Greek 
influence  gave  a  still  further  "  wisdom  "  type.  In  all  the  develop- 
ments, even  in  the  "wisdom"  documents,  may  be  traced  the 
slow  ethical  acquirements  gained  in  the  long  process  from  the 
nomadic  pastoral  life  of  the  early  border  tribes  to  the  commercial 
trading  life  of  the  diaspora.  The  virtues  of  a  gracious  primitive 
hospitality  and  the  shrewd  thrift  of  a  later  commercial  period 
jostle  one  another  in  the  latest  writings  of  the  Greek  period.^ 
The  nation  became,  in  part  at  least,  a  trading  community. 
Tradition  ascribed  the  transition  period  to  the  reign  of  Solomon, 
but  the  semi-nomadic  "shepherds,"  like  Amos  of  Tekoa,  who 

'  Micah  6  :  i-8;  Amos  5  :  1-27;  Ezekiel  18  •  1-9. 
*  Proverbs  3  :  27  and  22  :  7. 


34  HISTORY   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

travelled  up  and  down  the  trade  routes  with  their  flocks  and 
herds,  may  have  long  before  Solomon's  traditional  date  become 
Oriental  merchants  as  one  still  sees  them  in  the  bazaars  of  Cairo 
and  Constantinople. 

In  the  valleys  of  Palestine  there  persisted  memories  of  all 
the  economic  stages  through  which  the  tribes  of  Israel  passed. 
Shepherds  watched  their  flocks  and  drove  them  from  pasture 
to  pasture  as  in  the  days  of  Jacob  and  Abraham.  The  vine 
dresser  and  small  peasant  farmers  clustered  about  the  foot- 
hills and  made  the  richer  soil  of  the  valley  yield  up  its  fruit.  The 
fisherman  plied  his  trade  on  the  inland  lakes,  while  a  more 
prosperous  "diaspora"  bound  together  Rome,  Alexandria,  and 
the  cities  of  Asia  Minor  in  an  elaborate  and  most  profitable 
system  of  money  exchange. 

The  impress  of  all  these  economic  phases  is  upon  the  religion 
and  morals  of  that  Judaism  whose  chief  records  are  the  canon- 
ical books. 

Prophetism. — The  Ethics  of  Prophetism  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  centuries  before  Christ  mark  the  turning-point  in  the 
history  of  Israel.  Material  prosperity  seems  to  have  come  in 
the  life  of  the  northern  kingdom.^  Probably  the  developed 
trade  routes  and  the  relative  safety  of  both  northern  and  southern 
kingdoms  as  vassal  states,  playing  off  Egypt  against  the  great 
rising  northern  powers,  gave  commerce  and  industry  large 
rewards.  Luxury  became  rife.  Now  to  the  stern,  hardy  semi- 
nomadic  prophetism  of  the  desert,  represented  by  such  faithful 
followers  of  Jehovah,  or  Jahwe,  as  Amos,  the  shepherd-merchant, 
this  self-indulgence,  and  conformity  to  the  religious  cults  of  more 
advanced  peoples  amidst  the  pleasure-seeking  of  the  town  was  a 
direct  betrayal  of  the  national  God.  If  criticism  be  right  in  its 
conjectural  excisions,^  the  message  of  the  older  prophets  was 
almost  wholly  a  demand  to  return  to  the  relative  simplicity  of 

*  Amos  6  :  i-6;    Hosea  12  :  7-8. 

2  Cf.  articles  in  "Encyclopedia  Biblica"  (Cheyne)  and  in  Hastings's  "Bible 
Dictionary,"  on  Amos,  Micah,  Hosca,  and  Isaiah. 


THE   PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      35 

the  older  semi-nomadic  period.  The  virtues  praised  and  the 
vices  denounced  are  those  in  the  foreground  of  a  relatively  simple 
pastoral  life.  The  new  trading  life,  with  its  oppression  of  the 
debtor  class,  its  private  ownership  of  land  and  speculation  in  its 
increasing  values,  its  violence  and  robbery  under  legal  forms, 
with  corruption  of  courts  and  perversion  of  justice,  seemed  to 
the  nomad  shepherd  utterly  abhorrent  and  destructive.  As  he 
sweeps  the  political  horizon,  made  familiar  to  him,  no  doubt,  as 
he  travelled  with  his  flocks  and  herds  from  north  to  south  and 
south  to  north,  he  sees  Damascus,  Gaza,  Ammon,  and  Moab 
judged  for  cruelty,  slave-hunting,  slaughter  of  women  and 
children,  sacrilege,  and  commercial  greed;  and  realizes  that 
these  are  more  and  more  becoming  the  sins  of  the  Hebrew 
tribes  as  they  fall  heirs  to  the  life  of  the  valleys. 

The  remedy,  however,  is  only  a  return  to  the  simpler  life. 
Moreover,  the  semi-nomadic  prophetism  never  could  evolve 
elaborate  stated  places  of  worship  or  complicated  sacrificial 
ritual.^  The  emphasis  was  put  upon  the  strong  righteousness  of 
Jahwe,  the  firm  protection  of  the  poor  and  the  oppressed.^ 
Commercial  competition  is  the  great  destroyer  of  tribal  and 
family  bonds  built  up  on  the  simple  communism  of  the  family 
group.  Amos  therefore  fiercely  denounces  what,  to  him,  was 
destructive  of  all  the  values  he  set  store  by. 

The  negative  denunciatory  message  of  Amos  is,  however, 
supplemented  by  the  utterances  of  the  priestly  Hosea,  whose 
view  of  life  is  softer  and  more  constructive.  Jahwe  is  pictured 
as  the  forgiving  husband,  and  one  of  the  most  fruitful  religio- 
ethical  conceptions  of  history  is  thus  introduced.  The  relations 
of  the  nation  to  God  as  the  Father  of  the  nation  is  further 
expanded  in  the  Isaian  anthology,  for  Jahwe  is  thought  of  as  at 
least  the  prospective  Father  of  all  nations.^  The  prophetic  con- 
ception of  righteousness  is  high,  and  the  communal  life  is  the 
proper  field  for  the  moral  man  to  prove  his  loyalty  to  Jahwe. 
The  ritual  elements  are  not  wholly  ignored,  but  they  are  dis- 
tinctly put  in  the  secondary  place. ^    And  "to  do  justly  and  love 

*  Amos  5  :  21-27.        ^  Amos  8  :  i-io.       ^  Isaiah  56  :  i-8.       *  Micah  6  :  8. 


36  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  God"  forms  the  ethical  content 
of  loyalty  to  Jahwe. 

Moreover,  Jahwe  is  a  redeeming  God  *  and  to  become  the 
Redeemer  of  the  whole  earth.^  This  redemption  is  ethical  in 
character.^  God  is  the  one  God  of  righteousness  and  other 
gods  are  either  nothing  or  are  evil.  To  worship  them  is  the  sin 
of  adultery,  for  the  relationship  between  Jahwe  and  his  people  is 
thought  of  again  in  terms  of  the  marriage  relationship.  This  in- 
volved a  constant  idealization  of  the  ''covenant"  between  God 
and  his  people.  Even  the  legal  elements  that  inhere  in  the  con- 
ception of  a  covenant  are  swallowed  up  in  the  deeper  thought  of 
love  as  the  very  being  of  that  covenant,  and  mutual  loyalty  as  its 
chiefest  crown.  Thus  the  foundation  was  laid  for  a  fairer  eth- 
ical temple.  The  prophetic  movement  had,  naturally,  various 
levels,  and  its  upward  movement  was  not  a  steady  onward 
progress.  The  prophets  of  the  second  temple  period  (Haggai 
and  Zechariah,  about  521)  are  far  more  concerned  with  the 
outward  and  visible  signs  of  the  nation's  allegiance  than  with  the 
inner  quality  of  the  service.  Nor  are  we  to  define  too  sharply  the 
prophetic  movement.  It  stretched  from  the  eighth  century 
up  to  John  the  Baptist,  in  various  degrees  protesting  against 
types  of  declension  and  disloyalty,  and  in  various  ways  pro- 
claiming a  return  to  an  idealized  simple  worship  of  Jahwe,  often 
linked  with  longings  for  the  old  nomadism  (Essenes,  John  the 
Baptist  in  the  wilderness),  and  identifying  its  ideals  with  a  past 
impossible  to  recall.  But  the  glory  of  Israel  is  its  prophetism; 
from  the  early  prophets  of  action  (Elijah,  Nahum,  Micah)  who 
left  no  writing,  to  John  the  Baptist,  a  long  succession  of  noble 
spirits  strove  for  a  splendid  ethical  monotheism  and  a  theocratic 
democracy.  Other  and  weaker  elements  mingled  with  this 
teaching,  but  these  things  alone  lift  the  prophetic  writings  and 
services  of  Old  Testament  history  up  amid  God's  pro\idential 
care  of  the  race  as  his  chiefest  gifts  to  our  ethical  and  religious 
life. 

'  Micah  6:4.  ^  Isaian  anthology. 

'  Isaiah  62  :  1-5  and  many  passages. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIANITY      37 

The  Early  and  Later  Priestly  Development. — As  prophetism 
bore  to  the  end  the  marks  of  its  nomadic  origin,  so  both  the  early 
and  later  priestly  developments  reveal  constantly  their  close  con- 
nection with  sacred  places  which  grew  in  stability  and  importance 
as  the  population  became  greater  and  more  settled.  That  this 
transition  period  from  nomadism  to  semi-agrarian  conditions 
has  always  been  linked  with  a  great  leader  and  law-giver  called 
Moses  is  a  presumption  in  favor  of  his  historical  character, 
although  with  the  present  data  we  may  despair  of  defining 
exactly  either  his  real  place  in  the  history  or  even  of  meeting 
all  the  objections  and  difficulties  critical  study  has  suggested. 
Yet  it  seems  impossible  not  to  believe  that  the  whole  period 
was  dominated  by  one  of  those  great  constructive  minds  whose 
memory  remains  as  a  priceless  treasure  to  his  nation  and  the 
world. 

It  is  impossible  to  separate  clearly  the  priestly  elements  of 
Israel's  history  from  the  prophetic.  Yet  the  emphasis  was  so 
different  that,  from  time  to  time,  the  ideals  did  sharply  conflict. 
Nor  was  the  priesthood  any  more  at  constant  peace  with  the 
growing  monarchy  than  prophetism.  At  the  same  time  they 
had  more  in  common  with  each  other.  Prophetism  was  not  in 
its  nature  institutional;  both  the  monarchy  and  the  priesthood 
were.  Prophetism  was  essentially  radical,  and  even  under  the 
guise  of  a  return  to  primitive  piety  it  was  essentially  an  unfolding 
of  new  and  higher  ethical  ideals.  Neither  a  monarchy  nor  a 
priesthood  can  escape  conservatism.  Indeed  that  is  for  both  a 
large  part  of  their  social  function.  Prophetism  was  often  critical 
and  denunciatory  to  the  point  of  destructiveness.  The  prophets' 
words  were  "too  heaiy,  the  land  could  not  bear  them."  The 
monarchy  and  priesthood  stood  for  things  as  they  substantially 
were,  and  wished  only  to  purge  the  nation  from  the  grosser 
sins. 

The  legal  development  has  an  exceedingly  early  origin.  The 
first  "ten  words"  (Exodus  34)  have  already  agricultural  addi- 
tions to  what  was  possibly  in  the  beginning  a  purely  pastoral 


38  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

and  nomadic  code/  and  the  association  of  the  name  of  Moses 
with  the  earliest  codes  as  well  as  the  carrying  on  of  the  codifica- 
tion by  legal  fiction  in  his  name  points  to  a  beginning  of  a  written 
law  when  first  the  people  began  to  settle  down  about  sacred 
places  like  Bethel  and  Gilgal  and  to  make  them  centres  of 
political  life. 

The  legal  development  as  such  does  not  rise  to  very  great 
ethical  heights.  The  recently  discovered  code  of  Hammurabi 
reflects  a  more  homogeneous  social  condition  and  a  more  con- 
sistent legal  aim.  The  old  primitive  lex  talionis  was  firmly 
imbedded  and  never  overcome.  Polygamy  and  divorce  were 
contemplated  as  constant  social  factors.  Slavery  is  retained,  but 
in  a  merciful  form,  and  the  ceremonial  and  external  forms  are 
hopelessly  mingled  with  the  moral  and  the  inward.  Even  gross 
superstitions  (Leviticus  i6  : 8-10)  are  sanctioned,  and  through- 

'  Exodus  34  :  14-28. 

I 
Make  no  covenant  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  land. 

II 

Thou  shalt  worship  no  other  Gods. 

Ill 
Thou  shalt  make  thee  no  moulten  Gods.     ^?1"?  ''^■^- 

IV 
Thou  shalt  keep  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread. 

V 
All  the  first-born  are  mine. 

VI 

All  the  first-born  of  thy  sons  shalt  thou  redeem. 

VII 

On  the  seventh  day  thou  shalt  rest. 

VIII 
Three  times  a  year  thou  shalt  appear  before  Jahwe. 

IX 

Thou  shalt  not  ofier  the  blood  with  unleavened  bread. 

X 
Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  its  mother's  milk. 

[This  is  simply  leaving  out  the  agricultural  words,  some  of  which  seem  on 
their  face  to  be  later  additions.] 


THE   PREPARATION   FOR    CHRISTIANITY      39 

out  a  utilitarian  and  superficial  view  of  the  nature  of  rewards 
and  punishments  appears.  The  whole  ethics  ranges  within  the 
present  life,  and  even  threatens  that  life  by  its  mass  of  minute 
regulation,  some  of  which  had  once  sanitary  justification  but 
much  of  which  had  become  merely  meaningless  routine. 

Yet,  making  all  these  concessions,  it  must  be  recognized  that  it 
was  a  great  step  forward  when  the  rude  and  often  fanatical 
nomad  entered  upon  an  ordered  social  state  with  its  own  legal 
character.  It  is  at  least  open  to  question  whether  the  legislation 
in  its  final  form  was  ever  more  than  a  priestly  dream  and  ideal 
bom  during  the  later  exilic  days;  but  whether  this  be  so  or  not, 
the  evidences  multiply  that  the  laws  of  Leviticus  were  never  the 
actual  working  laws  of  a  Jewish  state.  They  bore  the  marks 
of  an  increasingly  centralized  worship  and  a  narrowing  life. 
Yet  while  this  is  true,  at  the  same  time  really  lofty  conceptions  of 
Jahwe  as  a  righteous  God  are  never  absent.  Law  conserves 
and  crystallizes  the  ethical  gains  of  communal  experience  and 
aids  in  carrying  them  over  into  new  social  organizations.  An 
examination  of  the  primitive  Hebrew  law-giving  reveals  the 
tribal  communism  in  which  the  care  of  the  poor  and  feeble  is  as 
natural  as  the  care  of  members  of  a  family  one  of  the  other. 
The  commercial  trading  spirit  was  endangering,  evidently,  this 
community  of  feeling  (Micah  and  early  Isaiah),  and  the  legal 
development  faithfully  attempted  to  stem  this  tide.  The  for- 
bidding of  all  interest  in  such  a  social  state  was,  of  course,  im- 
possible of  exact  enforcement;  but  it  was  attempted,  and  the 
laws  of  mortgage  and  debt  collection,  if  unpractical  and  unen- 
forceable in  a  trading  community,  yet  showed  the  survival  of 
ideals  borrowed  from  the  past. 

In  one  important  respect  the  Torah  began  to  have  deep 
ethical  significance.  Amid  a  corrupt  and  corrupting  civilization 
settled  the  little  bands  of  pious  Jews,  who  came  trickling  back 
from  Babylon  and  Egypt  that  they  might  once  more  worship 
Jahwe  on  the  sacred  soil.  To  guard  themselves  and  their  chil- 
dren from  the  depravity  and  vice  of  the  mixed  populations  amid 
which  they  lived,  the  "Holy  Community"  fenced  the  life  of  the 


40  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

individual  and  family  by  ceremonial  regulations  resulting  in, 
and  intended  to  result  in,  the  isolation  and  seclusion  of  the 
religious  Jew.  That  this  later  priestly  development  was  a 
hardening  and  formalizing  process  none  can  deny,  but  it  is 
equally  impossible  to  blind  ourselves  to  the  fact  that  the  process 
alone,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  saved  for  us  the  Old  Testament 
writings,  and  a  community  built  upon  the  foundation  of  ethical 
monotheism.  Far  from  thinking  of  the  Jew  as  naturally  exclu- 
sive and  prone  to  separation,  the  tendency  seems  to  have  been 
altogether  on  the  other  side.  Only  the  severest  ceremonial  disci- 
pline and  the  most  fanatical  faith  could  save  the  Jew  to  his 
mission  as  he  became  a  trader  and  a  wanderer  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth.  The  ethical  significance  of  this  ceremonial  ex- 
clusiveness  was  simply  tremendous.  It  resulted  in  a  constant 
sifting  process.  Thousands  of  Jews  in  all  ages  have  rationalized 
their  faith  and  have  as  promptly  been  lost  to  Judaism.  From  the 
Christian  point  of  view  this  may  not  be  a  great  misfortune  now, 
it  would  have  been  a  world-calamity  if  the  Jewish  community 
as  such  had  thus  been  lost,  as  the  northern  kingdom  was  lost, 
before  its  achievements  on  the  religious  and  ethical  fields  had 
become  the  property  of  humanity.  The  preservation  of  these 
ethical  conquests  are  not  due  to  the  nation  as  such,  but  to  the 
Holy  Community,  the  "  Brotherhood  of  the  Synagogue,"  whose 
faith  and  zeal  kept  the  Torah  from  being  lost  amid  the  wrecks 
of  the  national  life,  as  the  waves  of  Assyrian,  Neo-Babylonian, 
Persian,  and  Greek  conquest  overflowed  the  world.  This 
Brotherhood  of  the  Synagogue  kept  its  character  only  by  the  in- 
creasing attention  to  the  externals  of  the  legal  system.  How 
really  dear  that  law  became  to  the  devout  heart  may  be  seen  in 
the  119th  Psalm  and  the  hymns  of  the  second  temple.  Its 
significance  as  the  only  real  preservative  of  the  faith  and  morals 
of  the  community  was  an  experience  to  which  generation  after 
generation  of  scribes  could  bear  their  witness.  The  ethics  of 
the  priestly  set  of  documents,  like  its  theology,  is  abstract  and 
stiff,  legal  and  external.  The  way  of  thinking  is  hard  and 
narrow,  yet  it  is  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  we  would  know 


OP  / 

THE    PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIANITY      41 

anything  about  a  prophetic  ethics  had  it  not  been  conserved 
for  us  in  the  midst  of  this  very  legalism. 

The  Deuteronomic  Synthesis. — The  prophetic  and  priestly 
emphasis  were  happily  never  wholly  separated,  and  early  in 
the  history  of  the  nation  arose  a  school  of  legal  interpretation 
seeking  to  combine  the  ethical  and  religious  quality  of  propheti- 
cism  while  conserving  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  and  the  ritual 
devoutly  believed  to  have  had  its  origin  at  Sinai.  The  lofty 
ethical  and  religious  character  of  the  Deuteronomic  writers  ^  is 
seen  not  only  in  the  book  from  which  is  taken  the  name  for  the 
school,  but  also  in  the  prophetic  interpretation  of  the  history. 
The  priestly  interpretation  overemphasizes  the  element  of 
ritual  correctness,  the  Deuteronornic  writers  find  the  essence  of 
the  relationship  between  God  and  his  people  in  the  loving 
righteousness  which  constitutes  God's  character  (Deut.  11  :  13- 
26  and  many  other  passages).  The  monotheism  is  exclusive  and 
even  stern  (Deut.  12  :  2-4),  the  ritual  demands  are  heavy  and 
exacting,  the  place  of  ceremonial  is  large  and  burdensome,  yet 
the  emphasis  is  not  on  these  things.  These  regulations,  in  fact, 
fit  naturally  into  the  life  of  obedience  to  moral  regulation  and 
religious  exaltation. 

This  type  of  thinking  must  not  be  confined  to  one  revival 
period  under  Josiah.  It  is  to  be  found  all  down  the  history, 
and  the  teachings  of  Jesus  may  be  called  the  natural  flowering  of 
this  synthetic  process.  The  theme  of  the  Deuteronomic  school 
is  the  loving  redemption  of  Jahwe,  and  the  literature  breathes  the 
atmosphere  of  confident  faith,  even  while  it  threatens  wrong- 
doing and  scourges  all  declension  from  the  national  religion. 
The  appeal  is  throughout  to  Moses  as  the  great  prophet  as  well 
as  law-giver,  and  the  separation  in  the  tradition  between  Moses 
the  prophet  and  Aaron  the  priest  gives  great  force  to  the  ethical 
interpretation  of  the  ritual  law.  The  national  significance  of  a 
pure  worship  and  a  high  morality  form  the  constant  burden  of 
the  Deuteronomic  school  (Deut.  32  : 1-43;    Judges  2  :  11-23; 

'  Among  these  are  to  be  counted  editors  of  historic  books  as  Judges,  Samuel, 
and  Kings. 


42  HISTORY   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

and  many  other  passages).  With  the  priestly  writers  these 
Deuteronomic  writers  see  in  the  following  after  "strange"  gods 
a  principal  cause  of  Israel's  discomfiture, 

A  centralized  worship  and  elaborate  sacrificial  life  is,  more- 
over, equally  with  the  priestly  interpretation  of  the  history, 
thrown  back  into  a  time  when  we  see  from  the  documents  the 
school  has  itself  preserved  for  us  that  the  worship  was  scattered 
among  many  "high  places"  without  any  sense  of  wrong-doing 
on  the  part  of  the  most  developed  religious  life,  and  when  every 
head  of  a  family  was  by  that  fact  a  priest  and  offered  sacrifices 
freely/  Happily  the  older  traditions  were  already  regarded  as 
sacred,  and  seem  little  altered,  and  the  school  of  writers  in  the 
Deuteronomic  spirit  content  themselves  with  homiletic  and 
ethical  interpretation.  These  ethical  advances  are  constantly 
along  the  line  of  spiritualized  worship  and  social  righteousness 
and  humanity. 

The  ethics  are  sometimes  crudely  eudaemonistic,  but  the  eudcc- 
monism  is  of  national  character  and  therefore  of  a  far  loftier 
type  than  sometimes  appears  in  the  lower  ranges  of  the  nation's 
thought.  Jahwe  is  always  represented  in  the  twofold  aspect 
as  a  loving  redeemer  to  a  faithful  and  repentant  Israel,  and  a 
stern  judge  and  avenger  when  Israel  wanders  from  the  path  of 
true  worship  and  moral  purity.  Indeed  the  highest  rhetoric  of 
the  school  is  expended  in  enforcing  these  two  conceptions 
(Deut.  27  and  28,  etc.,  etc.),  and  the  picture  of  God  as  a  God  of 
vital  righteousness  and  loving  grace  is  of  epoch-making  beauty 
in  the  religious  literature  of  the  world. 

Note. — Literary  criticism  has  not  finished  the  work  of  histor- 
ical analysis,  and  many  positions  now  accepted  generally  may 
yet  be  given  up;  but  one  point  has  been  gained  for  all  schools 
and  for  all  time.  We  see  in  the  Old  Testament  the  gradual 
revelation  of  God  in  thq  midst  of  human  conditions,  and  realize 
that  the  revelation  is  constantly  conditioned  by  the  human  life 
in  which  God  reveals  himself.     The  difficulty  of  exact  historical 

'  Judges  6  :  1 1-22,  etc.,  etc. 


THE   PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIANITY      43 

reconstruction  may  be  admitted.  Many  most  attractive  hypothe- 
ses may  yet  have  to  be  altered  or  rejected.  A  reasonable 
agnosticism  is  a  wholesome  historical  grace.  It  may  be  quite 
vain  to  attempt,  for  instance,  to  separate  Isaiah  into  a  first,  a 
second,  and  a  third  writer,  because  probably  we  are  dealing  with 
the  songs  of  a  special  religious  and  literary  movement,  with  a 
common  inspiration,  but  extending  over  a  long  period  of  time 
from  the  monarchy  of  Hezekiah  to  the  joyful  return  of  little 
bands  of  wanderers  under  Persian  protection.  So  also  the 
Deuteronomic  "writer"  is  more  likely  a  particular  school  of 
thought,  again  having  a  distinct  historic  origin  in  the  religious 
movement  of  Josiah's  time,  but  extending  its  literary  activity, 
particularly  its  editorial  work,  far  down  into  the  exilic  period. 
The  sharp  lines  of  the  fashionable  reconstruction  may  have  to 
be  softened,  but  the  main  oudines  are  fairly  assured,  and  for 
religious  and  practical  purposes  we  have  now  an  outline  of  the 
Old  Testament  history  far  more  fruitful  than  the  impossible 
traditional  and  uncritical  misunderstanding.  It  remains  as  a 
thing  greatly  to  be  desired  that  the  devotional  literature  of  the 
Old  Testament,  especially  the  Psalms,  be  made  to  give  up  their 
contribution  to  the  wonderful  ethical  advances  of  the  "  Brother- 
hood of  the  Synagogue"  from  which  that  literature,  no  doubt, 
sprang. 

The  Contribution  of  Hellenized  Judaism. — The  power  of  the 
Jew  to  assimilate  and  be  assimilated  is  generally  underestimated 
because  of  the  exclusive  character  of  those  who  resist  the  process. 
Thousands  of  Jews  must  have  been  lost  amid  the  civilization  of 
Babylon.  Egypt  swallowed  up,  no  doubt,  many  more,  and  all 
down  history  the  capacity  of  the  Jew  for  adaptation  to  foreign 
life  and  foreign  thought  has  been  just  as  remarkable  as  the 
persistence  of  that  minority  which  conserves  the  exclusive  life 
and  thought.  The  Jew  no  more  succeeded  in  withstanding  the 
influence  of  Greek  culture  than  he  has  withstood  the  various 
types  of  European  culture.  Educated  Judaism  evidently 
sought  to  withstand  the  inroads  of  foreign  thought  by  interpreta- 


44  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

tions  in  the  spirit  of  ethical  monotheism  of  the  materials  given 
from  without.  Thus  both  the  priestly  and  the  prophetic  cos- 
mogonies may  best  be  understood  as  an  apologetic  reinterpreta- 
tion  of  a  Babylonian  or  some  older  cosmogony  which  had  in  it 
and  behind  it  the  dangers  of  an  attractive  but  religiously  de- 
structive polytheism. 

So  also  the  literary  activity  of  Judaism  flung  itself  upon  the 
reproduction  of  a  history  that  would  inspire  the  world  with 
respect,  and  properly  represent  their  ideals  to  the  nations. 
Along  exactly  this  line  we  have  the  "wisdom  literature"  and 
the  works  of  Philo  and  Josephus.  The  moment  we  comprehend 
the  aims  of  Philo  and  Josephus  we  see  that  in  their  day  and  in 
their  own  way  they  were  trying  honestly  and  sincerely  to  do 
what  the  priestly  and  prophetic  writers  had  done  in  their  time. 
There  is  no  need  to  suppose  intentional  twisting  or  accommodation 
on  the  part  of  any  of  the  writers,  at  the  same  time  the  trustworthy 
character  of  the  history  and  the  philosophical  interpretation  is 
effected  by  the  undoubted  attitude  of  special  pleading. 

From  the  time  of  the  Exile  on  we  have  a  distinct  ethical  de- 
velopment which  culminates  in  the  New  Testament.  In  that 
process  all  stages  of  resistance  to  foreign  ideals  and  all  kinds  of 
skilful  compromise  may  be  traced.  From  Persia  came  the 
development  of  a  crude  dualism.  Satan  relieved  Jahwe,  as 
Wellhausen  remarks,  of  many  of  the  unethical  characteristics 
still  clinging  to  the  old  desert  war-god.  At  the  same  time  the 
monism  of  Judaism  was  too  firmly  rooted  to  give  way  wholly  to 
dualism.  The  Exile  had  indeed  raised  many  questions  which 
the  teachers  of  the  period  of  the  second  temple  had  failed  to 
answer.  Dualism  was  a  simple  answer  to  some  of  these 
doubts,  but  it,  too,  seriously  challenged  the  fundamental  faith 
of  the  Holy  Community  to  be  really  accepted  in  all  its  conse- 
quences. 

The  most  serious  question  that  pressed  for  an  answer  was, 
"Why  do  the  righteous  suffer?"  This  doubt  could  no  longer 
be  ignored,  and  the  ethical  thought  in  the  canonical  books  of  this 
period  largely  centres  about  various  answers  to  this  searching 


THE   PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIANITY     45 

question.  Of  course  from  the  priestly  and  organization  point  of 
view  the  obvious  although  superficial  answer  was  that  a  temple 
to  Jahwe  had  not  yet  been  built  and  that  the  ritual  obligations 
had  never  yet  been  fully  met  (Zechariah,  Haggai).  The  most 
serious  and  thorough  discussion  was  that  of  Job.  In  its  original 
form,  however,  the  conclusion  was  too  agnostic  and  unsatis- 
factory for  the  average  mind,  and  so  we  have  the  closing  chapter 
and  perhaps  the  speeches  of  Elihu  added  as  a  contribution  to  the 
solution  of  the  problem. 

The  most  hopeful  and  religiously  influential  answer  was  that 
of  the  closing  period  of  the  anthology  of  Isaiah,  where  the  final 
purpose  of  all  suffering  is  found  in  the  glory  of  a  new  heaven 
and  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

In  none  of  the  answers  does  a  future  life  play  a  large  part. 
But  in  Isaiah,  as  in  Daniel,  there  dawns  the  hope  of  a  new  era,  in 
which  all  religious  and  ethical  aspirations  will  be  met  and  satis- 
fied by  the  revelation  of  Jahwe  in  a  community  of  peace  and 
happiness.  In  this  new  communal  life  all  the  awful  doubts  and 
difficulties  raised  by  the  failures  and  sufferings  of  the  Holy 
Community  were  to  be  set  at  rest  forever. 

The  firmer  and  higher  the  faith  in  Jahwe  was,  by  so  much 
greater  and  more  terrible  seemed  the  desertion  of  the  little 
company  of  the  faithful.  The  tragedy  of  the  situation  was  in  the 
fact  that  Jahwe  was  not  only  thought  of  as  almighty  ruler,  but 
as  loving  father.*  A  m.erely  almighty  ruler  could  do  what  he 
liked.  But  a  loving  father  in  covenant  relation  with  his  children 
cannot  be  unethical.  And  even  though  the  conception  of  father- 
hood is  oriental,  and  hence  deeply  tinged  by  despotism,^  never- 
theless the  relationship  is  not  simply  that  of  creator  and  crea- 
tion, but  of  love  and  affection. 

Hence  it  happened  that  the  more  loving  and  intimate  the 
relation  between  Jahwe  and  Israel  was  conceived  of  as  existing, 
by  so  much  the  more  was  the  poor  heart  of  the  faithful  follower 
torn;  and  the  stranger  and  more  inexplicable  becomes  the  op- 
pression and  the  defeat  of  the  chosen  child. 

'  Isaiah  63  :  i6;   64  :  8.     Jeremiah  31:9.  *  Isaiah  64  :  8. 


46  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  vision  of  a  redemption  was  thus  more  and  more  thrust 
into  the  foreground.  It  was  no  new  thought.  The  traditions 
of  a  fiight  from  Egypt  still  haunted  the  imaginations  of  Israel. 
The  redemption  was  to  come  in  catastrophic  world-changes. 
The  fall  of  Babylon,  and  wreck  of  the  Persian  supremacy  were 
basal  images  upon  which  the  Jewish  apocalyptical  literature 
fastened,  and  in  Daniel,  the  Book  of  Enoch,  etc.,  we  have  the 
developed  solution  of  the  nation's  pain  in  great  judgments  and 
future  deliverances  so  dramatic  and  so  overwhelming  that  room 
for  doubt  as  regards  either  the  power  or  the  righteousness  of 
Jahwe  could  have  no  place. 

Yet  this  solution  could  not  meet  all  needs.  The  rather  crude 
ethics  of  this  literature  and  its  failure  along  the  lines  of  any 
unifying  philosophy  gave  rise  to  a  rationalization  more  thorough- 
going. The  ''wisdom"  of  the  later  Jewish  writings  was  the 
starting-point.  The  method  of  procedure  was,  however,  to 
remove  God  as  such  from  the  scene  of  the  temporary  trial 
and  disaster,  and  to  fill  up  the  place  thus  made  vacant  by  lesser 
and  intermediary  beings.  Thus  Philo  and  the  Alexandrian 
Jews  translated  Plato's  teaching.  Wisdom  becomes  the  Logos 
mediating  in  creation  and  providence  between  a  transcendent 
God  and  the  created  world.  Man  is  sharply  divided  into  body 
and  soul,  and  the  metaphysical  dualism  of  Platonic  thought  is 
religiously  developed  and  exploited.  Into  Philo's  synthesis 
come  all  the  elements  of  world-flight,  contemplative  life,^  de- 
spondency, a  doctrine  of  a  final  judgment  and  exaltation  of  the 
transcendent  which  mark  Plato's  later  period.^  Combined  with 
this  is  the  distinctly  Jewish  hope  of  a  great  consummation  and  a 
final  vision  of  God.  This  is  reached  not  by  asceticism,  but  in 
prophetic  ecstasy. 

The  final  form  of  government  is  the  theocratic  democracy 
borrowed  from  the  Old  Testament  prophets.^  The  main  em- 
phasis is  upon  God  as  the  final  good  and  knowledge  of  God  as 

'  This  quite  apart  from  the  writing  which  can  scarcely  be  defended  as  by 
Philo:    "Dc  vita  contcmplativa."     Cf.  "Legis  Allegor,"  II,  §  i8. 
*  Contra  Zieglcr.  '  Not  from  Stoics  as  Zeller  argues. 


THE   PREPARATION   FOR    CHRISTIANITY      47 

the  goal  of  all  life.  Philo  uses  many  phrases  in  an  Old  Testa- 
ment sense,  which  he  has  borrowed  from  Greek  philosophy,  but 
which  lead  to  misinterpretation  of  Philo,  if  his  Jewish  use  of 
them  is  forgotten.  His  ethics  is  distinctly  Hebrew  rather  than 
Greek,  democratic  rather  than  aristocratic,  and  this  in  spite  of 
the  hierarchy  which  he  took  over  from  the  Platonic  speculation. 

Note. — In  the  somewhat  dreary  rationalization  of  the  Old 
Testament  by  Philo  some  things  stand  out  clearly  as  character- 
istic probably  of  Judaism  over  wide  sweeps,  and  not  especially 
Alexandrian.  First  the  real  aim  is  to  express  Judaism  in  Greek 
phrases  rather  than  to  hellenize  Judaism.  Secondly,  the  chief 
interest  always  remains  religious  and  ethical.  Thirdly,  the 
dominant  character  of  certain  Greek  positions  made  it  seem 
inevitable  to  find  some  harmony  if  the  Old  Testament  was  to  be 
still  retained.  Hence,  just  as  misguided  Christian  apologetics 
has  always  attempted  to  make  the  Old  Testament  teach  the 
latest  lesson  of  science,  so  the  Jewish  apologist  rewrote  his 
history  to  conform  to  what  seemed  assured  historical  data.  As 
Josephus  in  the  time  of  Roman  supremacy,  or  the  prophetic 
historian  in  the  time  of  Babylonian  ascendancy,  so  the  Jewish 
philosopher  Philo  in  Alexandria  sought  in  the  day  of  Greek 
philosophical  dominance  to  rewrite  his  nation's  wisdom  in  the 
language  of  the  day.^ 

'  Side  lights  on  this  process  may  be  gained  in  R.  H.  Charles's  admirable 
"Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Future  Life  in  Israel,  in  Judaism,  and  in 
Christianity."  The  Jowett  Lectures,  1898-1899.  CJ.  also  Professor  Deiss- 
mann's  "Licht  vom  Osten,"  already  mentioned. 


CHAPTER  II 

NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS 

Introduction. — I.  The  Ethics  of  Jesus — II.  The  Ethics  of  Paul — III.  The 
Johannine  Interpretation — IV.  The  Ethics  of  the  other  Canonical 
Writers:  Hebrews;  James;  The  Revelation  to  John;  The  Ecclesi- 
astical Literature. 

INTRODUCTION 

The  unity  of  life  is  a  postulate  of  our  faith,  but  its  understand- 
ing demands  our  breaking  it  up  into  many  elements  and 
viewing  it  from  many  standing  places.  The  canonical  interpre- 
tations of  Jesus  cannot  be  forced  into  any  mechanical  and 
absolute  harmony,  and  to  rightly  weigh  the  ethical  teachings  of 
the  canonical  books  we  must  reckon  with  the  distinct  differences 
in  interest  and  outlook  on  the  world  manifest  to  the  candid 
student  of  the  New  Testament  writings. 

Jesus  has  become  historically  the  central  figure '  in  the  struggle 
of  humanity  upward  to  the  redeemed  life.  The  "Christian 
Era"  has  become  the  important  factor  in  the  life-history  of  India, 
China,  Japan,  and  the  far-off  island-continents  then  unknown. 

'  The  critical  question  as  to  the  historical  character  of  Jesus  and  Paul  has 
produced  a  large  literature.  After  a  survey  of  its  arguments  the  writer  is  more 
convinced  than  ever  of  the  historicity  of  Jesus  and  Paul,  but  for  the  ethical 
student  it  is  suflBcient  to  say  that  no  single  fact  is  indispensable  to  the  ideal  which 
has  power  over  us.  The  main  works  on  the  negative  side  are:  Robertson, 
John  M.:  "Pagan  Christs"  (studies  in  comparative  hierolog}-),  London,  1903; 
Robertson,  John  M.:  "Christianity  and  Mythology,  London,  1900;  Drews, 
Arthur:  "Die  Christus  mythe,"  Jena,  1909;  Burnouf,  Emile:  "La  Science  des 
Religions,"  4th  ed.,  1885  (English  translation  by  J.  Liebe,  London,  1888);  Kalt- 
hofif.  A.:  "Das  Christus-Problem,"  2d  ed.,  Leipsic,  1903;  Kalthoff,  A.:  "Was 
wissen  wir  von  Jesus?"  Berlin,  1904;  Smith,  Wm.  B.:  "Der  vorchristliche 
Jesus,"  Giessen,  1906;  Jensen,  P.:  "Moses,  Jesus,  Paulus,  drei  Varianten  des 
babylonischen  Gottmenschen  Gilgamesch,"  Frankfort-on-Main,  1909. 

48 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  49 

This  place  in  history  no  theological  changes,  no  readjustment 
of  values  can  now  disturb.  Whatever  civilizations  may  come 
after  ours,  they  can  only  come  on  the  basis  of  that  which 
rose  on  the  wrecks  of  Grecian  culture  and  Roman  imperialism. 
The  churchly  reconstruction  of  life,  the  Christianized  barbarism 
of  the  north,  the  entire  reinterpretation  of  the  ideals  of  existence, 
date  from  the  life,  death,  and  teachings  of  a  lonely  figure  whose 
scattered  phrases  are  given  us  in  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament. 
What  were  the  ethics  of  Jesus,  is  a  serious  question.  In  various 
degrees  the  interpretations  of  those  teachings  drift  apart  from 
one  another  and  from  the  original  central  instruction. 

The  world-forces  that  culminate  in  the  churchly  society  of  the 
Middle  Ages  may  be  variously  estimated  and  judged.  For  some 
the  light  went  out  when  the  cross  rose  above  the  palaces  of 
Rome  and  Constantinople.  But  all  must  admit  that  the  triumph 
of  that  cross  was  the  outcome  of  the  profound  impression  made 
in  the  midst  of  men  by  a  Jewish  peasant  workman  in  the  course 
of  a  public  life  extending  over  hardly  more  than  three  years  at  the 
most.  The  reasons  for  the  rapid  rise  of  the  churchly  society 
that  called  itself  Christian  do  not  belong  here;  we  have,  however, 
to  enter  upon  the  work  of  discovering  the  ideals  and  hopes  which, 
centring  about  Jesus,  gave  us  the  canonical  books,  the  ecclesias- 
tical societies  east  and  west,  and  the  modern  civilization  we 
call  by  courtesy  Christian. 

I,      THE  ETHICS   OF  JESUS 

Our  one  interest  is  to  ask  the  question :  What  was  the  organiz- 
ing ethical  ideal  of  Jesus,  as  a  man,  working,  struggling,  and 
teaching  ?  What  did  he  actually  proclaim  as  the  ethical  ideal 
upon  which  he  would  have  men  organize  all  life  ? 

Literature. — Briggs,  Charles  A.:  "The  Ethical  Teaching  of  Jesus";  New 
York,  1904. — Weiss,  Bernhard:  "Lehrbuch  der  biblischen  Theologie";  Berlin, 
7th  ed.,  1903;  translation  of  3d  ed.,  Edinburgh,  1882;  2  vols. — Wette,  Wilhelm 
M.  de:  "Biblische  Dogmatik  des  Alt,  und  Neuen  Testaments";  3d  ed.;  Ber- 
lin, 1831. — Neander,  Augustus:  "Geschichte  der  Pflanzung  und  Leitung  der 
christlichen  Kirche  durch  die  Apostel";    5th  ed.;    1862;    translated  by  J.  S. 


50  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

We  have  not  now  to  do  with  the  unfolding  of  these  ideals, 
however  legitimate  such  inferential  unfolding  may  be,  either 
in  any  personal  interpretation  of  Jesus  or  in  historical  Christian- 
ity. With  the  outcome  of  his  teaching,  however  inevitable,  we 
are  not  immediately  concerned.  We  wish  simply  to  know, 
what  did  Jesus  the  Galilean  rabbi  teach  as  the  ethical  foundation 
of  human  life? 

At  the  very  beginning  of  our  inquiry  we  must  remember  the 
distinctly  Jewish  character  of  all  we  know  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Jewish  mmd  dealt  with  concrete  problems  and  with  things 
here  on  earth.  The  dualism  of  good  and  evil  was  forced  upon 
him.  But  his  faith  in  God  compelled  him  to  believe  that  that 
dualism  was  only  temporary.  God  was  sure  to  at  last  disclose 
himself  as  not  only  triumphant  over  all  evil,  but  as  ruler  of  this 
world  and  all  its  fortunes. 

Ryland,  revised  by  Edw.  Robinson,  New  York,  1865. — Toy,  C.  H.:  "Judaism 
and  Christianity";  Boston,  1890. — Rogge,  Christian:  "Der  irdische  Besitz  im 
neuen  Testament";  Gottingen,  1897. — Cone,  Orello:  "Rich  and  Poor  in  the 
New  Testament";  New  York,  1902. — Stevens,  G.  B.:  "The  Theology  of  the 
New  Testament";  New  York,  1899  (International  Theological  Library). — 
Beyschlag,  W. :  "Neutestamentliche  Theologie";  2d  ed.;  Halle,  1896;  2  vols.; 
also  an  English  translation  by  Neil  Buchanan,  New  York,  2d  ed.,  1895;  in 
2  vols. — Holtzmann,  H.  J.:  "Lehrbuch  der  neutestamentlichen  Tneologie"; 
Freiburg,  1897;  2  vols. — Pfleiderer,  Otto:  "Das  Urchristentum,  seine  Schriften 
und  Lehren";  2d  ed.;  Berlin,  1902. — Wernle,  Paul:  "Die  Anfiinge  unserer 
Religion";  2d  ed.;  Tubingen,  1904;  also  an  English  translation  by  G.  A. 
Bienemann,  New  York;  Putnam,  1903-1904;  in  2  vols. — Gould,  E.  P.:  "The 
Biblical  Theology  of  the  New  Testament";  New  York,  1900. — Wendt,  H.  H.: 
"Die  Lehre  Jesu";  2d  ed.;  Gottingen,  1901;  also  an  English  translation  by 
John  Wilson,  New  York,  1892;  2  vols. — Mathews,  Shailcr:  "The  Social 
Teaching  of  Jesus";  New  York,  1897. — Peabody,  F.  G.:  "Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Social  Question";  New  York,  1901. — Weiss,  Johannes:  "Die  Predigt  Jesu 
vom  Reich  Gottes";  2d  ed.;  Gottingen,  1900. — Liitgert,  W.:  "Das  Reich 
Gottes  nach  den  synoptischcn  Evangelien";  Gutersloh,  1895. — Bousset,  W.: 
"Jesu  Predigt  in  ihrem  Gegensatz  zum  Judentum";  Gottingen,  1892. — 
Jiilicher,  Adolf:  "Die  Gleichnisreden  Jesu";  Tubingen,  1899;  2  vols. — 
Weinel,  H.:  "Die  Gleichnisse  Jesu";  2d  ed.;  Leipsic,  1904. — Jacoby,  Her. 
mann:  "Neutestamentliche  Ethik";  Konigsberg,  1899. — Weiss,  Johannes: 
"The  Ethics  of  Jesus  in  Hastings's  Bible  Dictionary  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels"; 
New  York  and  Edinburgh,  1906;  vol.  I.;  pp.  543-547. — Rau,  Albrecht:  "Die 
Ethik  Jesu";    Giessen,  1899. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  51 

Later  interpretations  of  Jesus  introduce  elements  we  must 
gravely  suspect  as  foreign  to  the  thought  and  world  of  Jesus. 
We  want  to  know  simply  and  solely,  so  far  as  our  materials  enable 
us  to  know  it,  what  did  Jesus  himself  believe  and  teach  ? 

In  consequence  of  our  aim  we  must  exclude  the  interpretation 
of  Jesus  by  Paul.  Without  in  the  least  questioning  the  high 
value  of  this  interpretation,  or  in  any  way  doubting  that  it  is 
a  legitimate  development  of  the  spiritual  meaning  of  Jesus  for 
human  life,  we  must  clearly  understand  that  Paul  did  not  him- 
self pretend  to  base  his  teaching  on  the  historical  Jesus.  For 
him  the  risen  Christ  and  a  living  present  revelation  formed  the 
foundation  of  his  "gospel."  Even  if  all  the  sayings  gathered 
by  Resch  from  Paul's  writing  as  possible  fragments  of  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  are  to  be  so  considered,  the  ethical  significance  of 
actual  quotations  from  the  words  of  Jesus  remains  small  and 
inconsiderable.^ 

In  like  manner  we  must  exclude  the  Fourth  Gospel.  It  also 
is  a  wonderful  interpretation  of  the  heart  and  spirit  of  Jesus. 
Yet  at  the  present  state  of  our  scholarship  it  is  quite  impossible 
to  separate  finally  between  the  elements  that  embody  objective 
accounts  of  Jesus  as  teacher  and  worker  and  the  subjective 
elements  so  prominent  in  the  discourses.  We  may  believe  in 
many  such  elements.  Even  the  history  of  the  synoptic  Gospels 
may  have  to  be  corrected  from  pages  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,^ 
yet  it  would  be  both  uncandid  and  unwise  to  treat  the  Fourth 
Gospel  as  a  whole  as  though  it  were  an  objective  history  of  the 
life  and  sayings  of  Jesus.  In  fact  its  religious  value  is  not  in 
that  direction. 

We  are  reduced,  then,  to  the  three  first  Gospels.  Here  again 
elements  must  be  treated  with  extreme  care.  Earnest  and  intel- 
lectually sincere  scholarship  can  hardly  now  accept  the  "ec- 
clesia"  passages  in  Matthew  (16  :  18  and  18  :  17)  as  undoubted 

'  C/.  "Agrapha,"  by  Alfred  Resch,  1889,  in  "Texte  und  Untersuchungen," 
vol.  V,   1889. 

2  C/.  "Das  Johannes  Evangelium,"  H.  H.  Wendt,  Gottingen,  1900,  pp.  45. 

233- 


52  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

reports  of  the  words  of  Jesus.  The  best  working  hypothesis 
proposed  as  a  solution  of  the  synoptic  problem  accepts  as  a 
basis  two  documents,  one  of  which  is  Mark  almost  as  we  have 
the  Gospel,  and  the  other  a  collection  of  "sayings"  of  Jesus. 
Luke  and  Matthew  have  woven  these  two  together,  mingling, 
however,  material  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  rearranging  the 
"sayings,"  although  keeping  the  order  of  Mark  almost  exactly. 
The  additions  of  Matthew  and  Luke  must  then  be  treated 
cautiously,  and  upon  the  narrative  of  Mark,  and  the  "sayings" 
as  found  in  both  Matthew  and  Luke,  we  must  be  content  to 
base  our  first  impression  of  Jesus  as  an  ethical  teacher.  Side 
lights  we  may  gain  from  later  sources.  The  interpretation  of 
Jesus  of  every  age  has  had  its  own  peculiar  religious  value;  at 
the  same  time  objective  historical  study  cannot  afford  to  confuse 
its  conclusions  with  such  interpretations  no  matter  how  valuable 
or  how  sound. 

In  order  to  measure  Jesus  as  an  ethical  teacher  and  to  grasp 
surely  the  organized  ideals  that  underlay  his  ethics,  we  must 
form  some  idea  of  the  environment  in  which  he  taught  and  the 
style  of  his  teaching.  Although  literary  Rabbinism  is  for  the 
most  part  much  later  than  Jesus,*  yet  Rabbinism  as  a  system 
of  religious  instruction  and  as  a  religious  tendency  existed  long 
before  him.  Just  as  the  Platonic  ethics  were  profoundly  in- 
fluenced by  the  opposition  to  the  Sophists,  so  the  ethics  of  Jesus 
grew  up  in  opposition  to  and  yet  deeply  influenced  by  the  Rab- 
binical ideals. 

The  style  of  Jesus  bears  witness  to  the  influence  upon  him  of 
the  eschatological  teaching  of  his  day.  Yet  deeper  still  was  the 
influence  of  the  literature,  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  his  religious 
world,  in  which  he  found  an  ethical  basis  for  his  opposition  to 
the  legalism  and  formality  under  which  the  religious  and  ethical 
life  of  his  time  groaned.  The  ethical  precepts  of  that  literature 
were  largely  contained  in  the  wisdom  (QDH)  literature,  and  that 
type  of  ethical  teaching  finds  its  place  in  the  original  sayings  of 
Jesus.     We  possess,  it  is  true,  only  Greek  renderings  of  the 

'  CJ.  Enry.  Brit.,  American  Reprint,  art.    "Mishnah,"  XVI,  527. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  53 

northern  Galilean  dialect  in  which  Jesus  probably  spoke  and 
taught.  But  it  requires  only  a  little  care  and  attention  to  mark 
under  the  Greek  dress  the  literary  character  of  the  original  saying. 
Now  no  one  in  ordinary  life  would  interpret  poetry  and  proverb 
by  the  same  rules  we  apply  in  the  construction  of  legal  documents 
or  philosophical  lore.  Instinctively  we  are  guided  by  the  style 
of  the  saying  to  the  method  of  its  interpretation.  The  same 
thing  is  true  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  We  must  pass  on  the 
character  of  the  particular  saying,  and  in  our  interpretation  we 
must  be  guided  by  the  feeling  for  the  literary  class  to  which  it 
belongs. 

Three  great  literary  types  influenced  deeply  the  thought  and 
style  of  Jesus.  The  exalted  religious  style  of  the  prophetical 
poetry  finds  frequent  reflection  in  his  longer  sayings;  the  sorite- 
what  artificial  epigram  of  the  wisdom  literature  has  also  its 
counterpart;  and  the  eschatological  dreaming  and  vivid  word 
painting  of  the  latter  Jewish  period  has  its  corresponding  imagery 
in  his  latter  work.^ 

In  considering,  then,  the  ethical  scheme  of  Jesus,  we  must  take 
into  consideration  the  purpose  and  inspiration  of  each  saying. 
It  is  of  great  importance  to  discover  how  far  he  was  deliberately 
standing  upon  the  ethical  ground  he  found  prepared  in  the  past 
history  of  his  people,  and  how  far  he  was  transcending  or  con- 
sciously opposing  the  conclusions  of  his  religious  and  ethical 
environment. 

Jesus'  ethics,  like  the  ethics  of  Spinoza,  was  intensely  "  God- 
conscious."  When  he  uses  the  term  "  Abba"  he  implies  no  such 
distinction  as  the  Greek  gives  us  between  "Our"  father  and 
"my"  father;  this  is  reflected  in  Luke's  version  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer.^  For  him  God  was  all  in  all  and  absolutely  sovereign.' 
The  heaven  is  his  throne,  the  earth  his  foot-stool;  he  marks 
the  sparrow's  fall*  and  numbers  the  hairs  on  our  head;  he 
clothes  the  lily  of  the  field,'  and  his  will  was  to  be  done  on  earth 

*  Examples  Matt,  ii  :  20-30;   Mark  10  :  27;   and  Matt.  24. 

2  Luke  11:2.     irdrep.  '  Matt.  5  :  35. 

*  Matt.  10  :  29.  *  Matt.  6  :  28. 


54  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

as  completely  as  it  is  thought  of  being  done  in  heaven.*  Unity 
with  the  purpose  0}  God  rather  than  love  to  God  is  the  basis  of  the 
thought  of  Jesus.  In  the  original  Mark  Gospel  the  only  mention 
of  love  to  God  is  in  a  quotation  from  Deuteronomy.^  This  im- 
pression of  Jesus'  teaching  is  well  represented  in  the  late  litera- 
ture, as  in  the  prayer  of  Jesus  in  the  17th  of  John.  The  ethical 
ideal  of  Jesus  was  "to  do  the  will  of  God."  '  To  love  God  was 
self-understood.  The  impression  made  by  the  original  teaching 
of  Jesus  is  that  ethics  was  thelemic  (to  coin  a  much-needed  word 
from  TO  OeXrjfjLa)  rather  than  emotional  or  intellectual.  God 
was  accepted  as  intellectually  apprehended.  Love  to  God  pro- 
ceeded from  right  relation  to  him,  rather  than  forming  the  basis 
for  those  relations.  The  basis  of  life  and  the  world  was  the 
will  of  God.  He  who  worked  with  this  will  had  all  things  made 
possible  to  him.*  Faith  was  this  acceptance  of  God  and  his 
will  as  the  ultimate  basis  of  all  life.  Later  Greek  speculation 
sought  to  interpret  this  ethical  sense  of  unity  with  God  into  a 
unique  metaphysical  relationship.  Perhaps  the  beginning  of  the 
process  is  seen  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  but  it  certainly  is  not  justi- 
fied by  Jesus'  own  words,  nor  does  the  essentially  Jewish  think- 
ing of  Paul  give  it  any  foundation.  The  consciousness  of  a 
unique  relationship  to  God  was  ethical  and  not  metaphysical.^ 
As  the  later  Gospel  put  it:  "His  meat  and  drink  was  to  do  the 
will  of  him  that  sent  him  and  to  finish  his  work."  • 

Moreover,  the  conception  of  this  divine  will  was  spiritual  as 
well  as  ethical.  The  differentiation  of  God  as  an  ethical  God 
from  the  conceptions  of  him  as  simply  a  triumphant  national 
war-hero  had  gone  far  during  the  captivity  and  in  the  later 
prophetic  literature  of  the  Old  Testament.  At  the  same  time, 
the  popular  mind  had  no  more  grasped  the  difference  then  than 
it  has  now;  and  even  the  religious  world  of  Jesus'  time  was 
caught  in  lower  and  false  notions  of  the  national  relationship  to 
Jahwe.'     Jesus  carried  on  the  work  of  the  later  prophets  in 

'Matt.  6:10.  =>  Mark  12:  30.  'Mark  3:  35. 

*Mark  ii  :  22-24.  *  Mark  12  :  1-9.  •John  4  :  34. 

'  C/.  John  the  Baptist's  message,  Matt.  3 : 9,  where  these  notions  are  condemned. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  55 

emphasizing  the  ethical  rather  than  the  national  relationship  to 
God.  But  he  went  further  than  the  prophets  in  making  this  the 
sole  basis  of  relationship/ 

As  Schultz  points  out:  ^  "That  in  the  olden  days  more  value 
was  placed  upon  the  blameless  carrying  out  of  the  religious  popu- 
lar customs;  and  that  the  prophets  on  this  account  had  un- 
wearyingly  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  great  principles  of 
morality  formed  the  fundamentals  of  righteousness,  we  see  in  all 
the  older  prophets."  Yet  even  in  the  prophets  the  basis  of  any 
possible  morality  was  the  fulfilment  of  ritual  requirements; 
just  as  to-day  many  fairly  intellectual  Protestants  cannot  think 
any  man  a  really  "good"  or  "godly"  man  who  does  not  keep 
one  day  in  the  week  for  observances  they  prize,  or  who  cannot 
repeat  "formulae"  they  think  ritually  necessary.  The  failure 
is,  of  course,  in  the  conception  of  God  as  ethical.  Jesus  had  so 
completely  seen  God  as  ethical  that  for  him  ritual  requirement 
took  its  normal  place  as  expedient  and  helpful,  or  hurtful  and  a 
hindrance  in  accordance  with  the  changing  requirements  of 
man's  life.^ 

The  vast  ethical  advance  thus  described  was  due  to  Jesus' 
conception  of  the  kind  of  righteousness  God  required  and  the 
character  of  the  holiness  ascribed  to  God.  The  perfection  of 
God  *  is  not  based  on  simple  power,  but  upon  an  essential  right- 
eousness. Jesus  drew  the  logical  ethical  consequence  of  the 
vision  of  God  as  given  in  Exodus  34  : 6  and  developed  more 
fully  by  the  Deuteronomist;  but  in  doing  so  realized  that  attach- 
ment to  custom  and  ritual  was  accidental  and  not  essential. 
His  saying,  "  Destroy  the  temple  and  in  three  days  I  will  build 
it  again,"  was  naturally  misunderstood  by  even  his  friends. 
He  expressed  there  his  sense  of  the  true  relationship  between  the 
inward  and  the  outward.     For  him  the  temple  was  but  an  out- 

*  Matt.  5  :  20;    7  :  21-22. 

2  "Alttestamentliche  Theologie,"  XXI,  p.  293,  2d  ed.,  or  English  translation, 
vol.  II,  p.  923. 

*  Mark  2  :  25-28,  "David  and  show-bread  and  Sabbath  made  for  man,"  and 
in  Mark  7  :  15,  "That  which  proceedeth  out  of  a  man  that  defileth." 

*  Matt.  5  :  48. 


56  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

ward  expression  that  would  in  an  indefinitely  short  period  be 
easily  rebuilt,  if  the  essential  ethical  unity  with  God  was  not 
destroyed.  It  was  in  this  sense  also  that  he  felt  his  presence 
made  many  otherwise  perhaps  useful  ritual  requirements,  such 
as  fasting,  washing,  etc.,^  unnecessary  for  his  disciples  so  long 
as  he  was  with  them. 

The  assumption  by  Jesus  of  an  absolutely  ethical  God  he 
never  established  by  argument,  nor  would  he  have  claimed  for 
it  originality.  He  would  have,  indeed  did  point  back  to  Deuter- 
onomy and  the  Psalms  as  setting  it  forth.  What  was  original 
in  his  teaching  was  the  separating  that  conception  from  national 
and  ritual  entanglements  and  making  it  the  sole  foundation  upon 
which  he  built  up  his  moral  system. 

Jesus  assumed  in  consequence  of  his  consciousness  of  God  as 
righteousness,  and  as  demanding  from  us  only  righteousness, 
the  freedom  and  moral  personality  of  every  human  being.  The 
centurion  reveals  a  faith  not  found  in  Israel.^  Yet  the  life  of 
Jesus  was  too  short  and  the  material  actually  from  his  lips  too 
scanty  to  assert  that  he  either  fully  realized  or  fully  exploited 
the  logic  of  this  position.  The  universalism  of  Luke  may  be  as 
late  a  product  as  that  of  Paul;  both  are,  however,  legitimate 
outcomes  of  Jesus'  conception  of  an  ethical  God  as  over  against 
a  national  and  unethical  thought  of  him.  The  parables  of  Luke 
are  certainly  genuine,  and  that  of  the  Good  Samaritan  reflects 
the  logic  that  broke  down  so  largely  (for  of  course  other  ele- 
ments entered  into  the  case)  the  national  boundaries  of  the 
proclamation  of  Jesus. 

The  definite  "Good  news"  that  Jesus  proclaimed  had,  then, 
as  presuppositions  a  sovereign  ethical  God  in  some  moral  rela- 
tionship to  man,  and  logically  to  all  men.  That  relationship 
Jesus  taught  his  disciples  to  describe  with  the  term  "Abba,"  or 
father.  The  will  of  God  which  was  for  Jesus  the  moral  founda- 
tion of  life,  was  the  will  of  a  just  and  kindly  father.'    The 

'  Mark  2  :  18;    Matt.  9  :  14.  ^  Luke  7  :  9. 

'  Parable  of  Prodigal  Son.  Luke  15  :  11-32;  Matt.  6  :  8,  "  Your  Father  know- 
eth  what  things  ye  have  need  of";   Matt.  7  :  1 1,  "  Ye  being  evil — good  gifts,"  etc. 


NEW  TESTAMENT  ETHICS  57 

fatherhood  of  God  in  relation  to  the  nation  of  Israel  was  a 
fairly  familiar  figure,  although  probably  the  false  terror  before 
Jahwe  as  judge  which  made  his  name  unpronounceable  (mn'») 
also  prevented  the  full  content  of  even  this  prophetical  phrase 
being  realized.  The  good  news  that  men  were  in  personal 
relationship  with  God,  independently  of  the  nation's  sins,  and 
that  personal  repentance  could  establish  relationships  that  even 
national  judgments  could  not  shake,  was  new  religious  teaching 
and  exalted  the  conception  of  manhood  at  once.  This  teaching 
was  in  close  connection  with  God^s  Kingdom  as  proclaimed  by 
Jesus.     What  was  this  Kingdom? 

Johannes  Weiss,  of  Marburg,  has  given  the  most  recent  and 
the  most  careful  answer  to  this  important  question,*  and  his 
answer  has  found  wide  acceptance  among  the  younger  New 
Testament  scholars.^  In  accordance  with  Dalman's  theory, 
he  asserts  that  the  idea  of  Jesus  is  wholly  eschatological.  For 
Jesus  the  reign  of  God  is  always  ("stets")  an  eschatological 
quantity  about  which  a  "presence"  can  only  be  alleged  in  so 
far  as  it  is  a  fact  that  the  "end"  is  already  in  process  of  be- 
ginning." ^  This  is  not  the  place  to  critically  analyze  the 
positions  taken;  sufficient  it  is  to  say  that  so  far  as  the  method 
0}  introduction  of  this  "reign  of  God"  *  is  concerned,  this  school 
is  undoubtedly  right.  Although  Jesus  distinctly  denies  any 
knowledge  of  the  time  of  the  coming  of  the  kingdom,^  he  un- 
doubtedly expected  it  sharply,  swiftly,  and  with  catastrophe,  and 
as  an  "eschatological  quantity."  But  it  is  one-sided  criticism 
of  his  words  to  fix  attention  solely  on  the  method  of  the  Kingdom's 
ultimate  triumph.  What  was  the  essence  of  the  Reign  of  God  ? 
is  the  serious  question.  Here  little  light  is  given  by  the  eschato- 
logical dreaming  of  such  a  literature  as  that  to  which  Daniel 
belongs,  and  that  side  of  Jesus'  teaching  does  not  concern  us 
now  at  all.    Happily  we  have  abundant  material  at  hand  for 

'  "Die  Predigt  Jesu  vom  Reiche  Gottes,"  1900. 

*  CJ.  "  Theologische  Litteraturzeitung,"  Oct.  12,  1901  (No.  21,  coll.  563-568), 
article  by  Bousset  in  review. 

^  Dalman  quoted  by  Weiss,  Job.,  p.  17  of  "Predigt  Jesu  vom  Reiche  Gottes  " 

«  D:cTr   ni3-'p.  s  Matt.  24  :  36. 


58  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

examination  of  the  ethical  content  which  Jesus  ascribed  to  the 
Reign  oj  God. 

The  organic  basis  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  his  placing  of  the 
emphasis  upon  the  ethical  factors  in  this  Reign  0}  God.  In  this 
he  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Isaiah,  Amos,  and  Hosea,  but  with 
greater  clearness  and  precision  and  with  greater  powers  of 
personal  moral  impression.  He  strongly  insisted  upon  this  re- 
ligio-ethical  basis  for  the  Reign  of  God,  and  he  emphasized  this 
religio-ethical  factor  as  a  condition  for  the  personal  participation 
in  the  glories  of  that  reign.  This  we  see  in  the  fundamental 
teachings  gathered  from  the  "sayings-collection"  in  what  we 
know  as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  The  arrangement  of  this 
"Sermon"  is,  of  course,  the  work  of  Matthew,  but  the  contents 
as  we  have  them  in  Luke  and  Matthew  reflect  the  intensely 
ethical  conception  Jesus  had  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The 
Kingdom  was  thought  of  as  coming  in  the  apocalyptic  visions  of 
catastrophe,  judgment,  and  change;  but  the  nature  of  the  King- 
dom when  it  came  was  not  the  material  triumph  of  Judaism, 
but  the  triumph  of  Righteousness.  No  saying  is  more  undoubt- 
edly that  of  Jesus  than  that  of  Matthew  6  :  33,  "  Seek  ye  first  the 
Kingdom  (or  his  Kingdom)  and  his  righteousness  (rrjv  StKac- 
ocrvvrjv  avrov)  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 
(Tipl^'HST  Delitzsch  renders  r7)v  htKaLocrvvrjv .)  What  mad- 
dened institutional  religion,  then,  as  it  maddens  it  now,  was  to 
be  told  that  the  essence  consisted  not  in  a  ritual  or  credal  cor- 
rectness, but  in  an  inner  ethical  character  which  it  did  not  then, 
as  it  does  not  now,  fully  exemplify.  The  bitter  hostility  to 
Jesus  was  aroused  by  the  fact  that  he  went  into  details,  and 
the  class  of  professional  religious  teachers  felt  that  their  influence 
and  teaching  were  the  objects  of  his  attack. 

That  the  organic  basis  of  Jesus'  proclamation  was  a  national 
ethical  reformation — to  be  completed  only  in  the  midst  of 
cataclysmal  changes — is  seen  in  the  fact  that  his  proclamation 
was  misunderstood.  He  was  made  a  Galilean  hero.  "The 
common  people  heard  him  gladly."  '    A  national  redemption 

'  Mark  12  :  37. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  59 

from  poverty  and  oppression  as  the  result  of  Jesus'  teaching  was 
no  doubt  their  crude  hope.  According  to  Jesus  the  rich  were 
shut  out  from  the  Kingdom  by  their  riches,  and  the  poor  were 
welcomed  for  their  poverty.  This  was  acceptable  teaching  to 
the  humble  but  restless  fishermen  of  northern  Galilee,  until  he 
went  on  to  emphasize  the  ethical  change  needed  in  them  also 
to  gain  entrance  to  that  Kingdom,  when  they  also  fell  away. 

This  national  factor  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  often  forgotten 
in  the  recognition  of  Christian  universalism.  Yet  nothing  is 
clearer  than  that  not  only  did  Jesus  begin  as  a  strictly  national 
teacher,  but  that  he  himself  only  realized  with  sorrow,  so  far  as 
he  fully  realized  it,  the  hopeless  character  of  his  national  work. 
Here  also  Jesus  only  filled  out  the  dream  of  the  exilic  Isaiah. 
His  desire  was,  indeed,  a  world-wide  redemption,  but  the 
"suffering  servant"  was  to  be  an  ethically  reformed  Judaism. 
Repentance  and  good  works  were  to  save  the  nation,  or  a  remnant 
of  the  nation,  in  the  midst  of  coming  catastrophies,  and  the  re- 
deemed Israel  was  to  teach  righteousness  to  the  world.  The 
good  news  was  to  be  proclaimed  among  all  nations  *  and  the 
"elect"  would  partake  in  the  ethical  change,  and  then  the  tribu- 
lation would  destroy  the  wicked,  and  the  Son  of  Man  would 
come  to  a  completed  and  triumphant  Kingdom. 

This  emphasis  upon  the  ethical  rather  than  upon  the  political 
and  economic  character  of  the  Kingdom  is  not  only  seen  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  (so  called)  but  in  the  material  which 
Matthew  gathers  into  the  long  discourse  to  the  disciples.^ 
This  material,  however,  is  to  be  probably  divided  into  two 
separate  periods  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

The  historical  order  of  Mark  may  be  provisionally  accepted  as 
the  oldest  and  most  correct  one.  That  order  practically  divides 
the  ministry  of  Jesus  into  two  periods.  The  first  was  full  of 
success,  of  hope,  and  of  large  personal  expectation.  Then  came 
the  coldness  in  Galilee  and  his  final  deposition  from  the  place 
of  a  popular  idol  and  coming  national  leader.  From  that  time 
on  the  Mark  material  is  intensely  personal.     The  message  is  no 

1  Mark  13  :  10.  *  Matt.  9  :  37-10  :  42. 


6o  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

more  to  the  nation  but  to  the  chosen  group.  They  are  to  be 
made  ready  to  do  the  work  of  Kingdom  proclaimers,  which  the 
nation  would  not,  was  not,  in  fact,  ethically  fit  to  do. 

This  division  is  not  found  in  Matthew  nor  in  John,  although 
in  Luke  traces  of  it  are  to  be  distinctly  seen.  Yet  it  is  a  striking 
fact  that  Matthew  in  mixing  sayings  of  the  two  periods  in  the 
sermon  he  constructs  *  involves  Jesus  in  confusions  from  which 
Mark  alone  saves  him,  and  in  which  Luke  does  not  involve  him.^ 
Mark  distributes  this  material,  and  without  question  correctly. 
As  long  as  Jesus  had  hope  for  the  ethical  reformation  of  Judaism 
he  confined  his  message  to  it.  He  hoped  it  would  then  do  the 
world  work.  When  he  considered  a  national  change  in  so  short 
a  time  as  no  longer  possible,  he  turned  to  a  small  chosen  group. 
The  ideal  became  a  redeemed  spiritual  community.  The 
"ecclesia"  passages  of  Matthew  are,  no  doubt,  a  later  addition. 
Jesus  never  probably  used  any  word  of  Hebrew  or  Aramaic 
that  would  be  translated  by  iKKXjjaia.  The  conception  was 
simply  a  spiritually  minded  following,  ethically  fitted  to  be  pro- 
claimers and  forerunners  of  the  coming  ethical  transformation. 
This  then  brings  us  to  consider  what  Jesus  looked  upon  as  the 
ideal  of  personal  ethics  for  such  a  spiritual  community. 

Jesus  never  was  a  systematic  teacher,  as  the  contrast  between 
him  and  the  scribes  goes  to  show.  "  They  were  astonished  at  his 
teaching,  for  he  taught  them  as  having  authority  and  not  as  the 
scribes."  ^  He  declared  what  seemed  to  him  obvious  and  does 
not  seem  to  have  argued.  His  teaching  was  inspirational  and 
not  analytical.  Hence  it  is  impossible  to  arrange  his  teachings 
without  doing  a  measure  of  injustice  to  them.  Moreover,  his 
personal  ethical  teaching  was  so  interwoven  with  his  religious 
faith  that  it  is  wellnigh  impossible  to  separate  it  from  the  the- 
ological groundwork.  The  particular  feature,  however,  of  his 
teaching  we  may  perhaps  bring  out  under  several  heads, 

*  Chapters  9  :  38-10  :  42. 

*  Compare  Matt.  10  :  5-15,  where  the  messengers  are  to  stay  in  Israel  and 
preach  only  to  their  nation,  with  10  :  16-23,  where  they  are  "messengers  to  the 
nations."  *  Mark  i  :  22. 


NEW  TESTAMENT  ETHICS  6i 

I.  Morality  was  for  Jesus  not  outward  conduct  but  inner 
motive.  The  man  who  looks  after  the  woman  with  lustful 
eye  has  committed  adultery  with  her  in  his  heart.^  This  was 
not  new,  but  it  was  a  neglected  and  forgotten  truth  in  the  fatal 
transformation  of  the  law  to  simple  statutory  requirements.  In 
Job's  defence  (chapter  XXXI)  the  hero  of  the  drama  is  made 
to  emphasize  the  inward  spirit;  even  secretly  he  has  not  rejoiced 
at  an  enemy's  misfortune,  nor  "has  his  heart  been  enticed" 
even  "secretly"  to  worship  moon  or  sun.  Jesus,  however, 
presses  the  logic  home.  All  ritual  and  legal  requirement  is  but 
symbolic  of  the  real  demand  made  upon  the  moral  man  for  an 
inward  purity  of  thought  and  hope.  "Not  that  which  entereth 
into  the  mouth  defileth  the  man,  but  that  which  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth,  this  defileth  the  man."^  "For  out  of  the  heart 
come  forth  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  fornications, 
thefts,  false  witness,  railings:  these  are  the  things  which  defile 
a  man."  ^  To  eat  with  unwashed  hands  did  not,  therefore,  defile 
a  man.  This  logic  made  Jesus  the  radical  destroyer  of  the 
existing  moralities,  which  were  as  intimately  bound  up  with 
outward  things  as  much  Protestant  morality  is  bound  up  with 
"Sabbath  keeping,"  "church  going"  and  "Bible  reading," no 
matter  how  mechanical.  How  sweeping  the  judgment  was  in 
the  time  of  Jesus  it  is  hard  for  us  now  to  realize.  No  doubt 
Jesus'  condemnation  of  all  "judging"  was  the  outcome  of  the 
attitude  toward  morality.  How  can  any  one  judge  (KUTaKpiveiv) 
another  without  reading  the  heart  ?  Hence  to  the  woman  taken 
in  adultery  (a  scarcely  doubtful  tradition  of  Jesus)  Jesus  himself 
refuses  condemnation.  This  is  not  to  allege  that  he  had  any 
clear-cut  philosophy  on  the  relation  of  the  state  to  the  individual, 
or  that  he  himself  withheld  all  condemnation  when  he  felt  him- 
self in  a  position  to  weigh  motives.  He  puts  his  dictum  forth  in 
poetical  form.  The  version  in  Luke  gives  us  a  clew  to  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  material: 

"Judge  not  and  ye  shall  not  be  judged. 
Condemn  not  and  ye  shall  not  be  condemned. 
With  what  judgment  ye  judge 

'  Matt.  5  :  2S.  ^  Matt.  15  :  ii.  *  Matt.  15  :  19-20. 


62  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Ye  shall  be  judged. 

With  what  measure  ye  mete 

Ye  shall  be  measured. 

*'  Why  look  at  the  mote  in  your  brother's  eye 
And  regard  not  the  beam  in  your  own? 
Or  how  say  to  your  brother,  lo  here! 
Let  me  cast  out  the  mote  from  your  eye, 
And  you  see  not  the  beam  in  your  own! 
Hypocrite,  cast  out  the  beam  from  your  eye 
And  see  clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote  from  your  brother's." 

This  inward  character  of  ethics  had  its  basis  in  the  spiritual 
experiences  of  the  Old  Testament  as  reflected  in  such  hterature 
as  the  51st  Psalm: 

"Create  a  clean  heart  in  me,  O  God; 
Renew  a  right  spirit  within  me." 

And  as  in  that  Psalm,  offerings  and  sacrifices  began  to  take  their 
place  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  as  non-essential. 

11.  This  led  to  the  proclamation  by  Jesus  of  the  supreme 
importance  of  morality  as  thus  defined.  The  identification  of 
morality  with  ritual  in  his  day  had  confused  the  issue  before 
human  life  much  as  that  issue  is  now  confused  by  the  identifica- 
tion of  morality  with  opinion.  The  solemn  scene  of  the  Judgment 
poem  ^  is  based  upon  this  sense  of  conduct  as  the  criterion  of  life. 
Not  every  one  that  says  "Lord,  Lord,"  but  only  the  man  who 
"does  the  will"  of  his  Father  shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.^  Those  even  who  have  conjured  with  the  name  of 
Jesus  and  done  in  his  name  "mighty  works,"  but  whose  life 
"worked  iniquity,"  cannot  be  saved  by  their  ritual  correctness. 
Conduct  springing  from  a  good  will  is  for  Jesus  the  supreme  test. 
"  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  ^  Conduct  is  the  outcome 
of  the  character.  In  a  little  poem  given  by  Luke  *  Jesus  empha- 
sizes this  inwardness  of  morality  at  the  same  time  that  he  asserts 
its  supremacy: 

"It  is  not  a  good  tree  giving  bad  fruit: 
It  is  not  a  bad  tree  giving  good  fruit: 
For  each  tree  by  its  fruit  can  be  known. 

Matt.  25  :  31-46.  '  Matt.  7:21.         '  Matt.  7  :  20.         *  Luke  6  :  43. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  63 

Not  of  thorns  do  men  gather  their  figs: 

Not  of  brambles  gather  men  grapes. 
The  good  man  from  good  stores  of  his  heart  does  his  good: 
The  bad  man  from  bad  stores  of  his  heart  does  his  bad: 

From  the  stores  of  the  heart  speaks  the  mouth." 

The  supremacy  of  righteousness  is  the  motive  put  always  before 
the  disciples.  "Ye  shall  be  perfect,  even  as  your  heavenly 
Father  is  perfect."  ^ 

III.  This  righteousness  is  not  only  ethical  as  over  against 
ritual  correctness,  and  inwardness  as  over  against  simple  con- 
formity to  rule,  but  the  character  of  it  is  deeply  compassionate. 
This  is  not  only  seen  in  the  exclusively  Lucan  parables  ("The 
Good  Samaritan,"  "The  Lost  Sheep,"  etc.),  and  in  Jesus'  own 
conduct  as  with  the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  or  in  the  works 
of  mercy  recorded  by  Mark,  but  Jesus  emphasizes  it  as  belonging 
to  any  real  righteousness.  "It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish."  ^ 
That  the  will  of  the  Father  is  compassionate  is  the  whole  teaching 
of  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  as  our  morality  is  to  do 
this  will  our  morality  must  be  tender  and  compassionate.  This 
made  another  point  of  strain  between  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and 
the  popular  ritual  conception  of  righteousness.  Again  Jesus 
here  consciously  elaborates  what  he  found,  no  doubt,  in  the 
prophetical  books.  Matthew,  for  instance,  cites  Hosea  6  :  6 
as  a  parallel  to  Jesus'  reply  to  those  who  objected  to  his  eating 
with  publicans  and  sinners,^  where  the  prophet  says,  "I  desire 
mercy  and  not  sacrifice."  He  makes  the  compassionate  will 
of  a  father  the  basis  for  a  personally  compassionate  morality. 
It  is  this  in  the  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus  that  Nietzsche  finds  so 
unsympathetic.  It  is  opposed  to  the  masterful  aristocratic  spirit 
that  has  given  us  nearly  all  our  systems  of  political  economy,  of 
religion,  and  of  morals. 

IV.  The  morality  of  Jesus  was,  however,  distinctly  "non- 
ascetic."  This  is  seen  not  only  in  the  impression  he  made  as  in 
contrast  with  John  the  Baptist,  "The  son  of  man  came  eating 

'  Matt.  5  :  20.  =  Matt.  i8  :  14.  »  Matt.  9  :  13. 


64  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

and  drinking,  and  they  say  behold  a  gluttonous  man,  and  a  wine- 
bibber,"'  and  in  the  non-observance  of  his  disciples  of  rules  for 
fasting,  etc.,  but  in  the  cardinal  doctrine  lying  at  the  basis  of 
all  his  morality.  For  asceticism  as  a  means  of  self-discipline 
Jesus  had  no  rebuke,  although  he  evidently  attached  little  im- 
portance to  it,^  but  the  ethical  significance  of  asceticism  is  the 
conception  of  self-mortification  as  a  method  of  access  to  God. 
For  such  asceticism  Jesus  had  no  place.  Anything  that  hin- 
dered access  to  the  ethical  Kingdom  v^^as  to  be  ruthlessly  sacri- 
ficed, hand,  foot,  or  eye,  but  sacrificing  the  hand,  foot,  or  eye 
would  not  give  any  access  to  the  ethical  Kingdom.^  This  was 
the  essence  of  the  attitude  of  Jesus  to  riches.  He  saw  in  riches 
the  bulwark  of  class  pride,  and  a  barrier  to  personal  perfection, 
and  he  condemned  them  in  that  sense.  At  the  same  time  mere 
poverty  was  no  means  of  access  to  God.  The  interpretation 
put  by  Luke  on  the  "sayings  of  Jesus"  seems  to  favor  the 
asceticism  that  marked  much  early  Christian  thinking,  and  no 
doubt  as  a  means  for  ethical  advance  Jesus  did  regard  ascetic 
practices  differently  from  the  average  ethical  thought  of  to-day. 
At  the  same  time,  even  the  expressions  of  Jesus  on  this  sub- 
ject, stripped  of  later  interpretations,  are  singularly  free  from 
ascetic  practice,  and  permitted  only  as  a  means  of  self-disci- 
pline for  ethical  life,  and  not  as  constituting  the  ethical  life. 
The  matter  of  fasting ,  for  instance,  is  nowhere  condemned  as 
such,  but  as  constituting  an  essential  part  of  the  outward  religious 
life  of  the  Pharisees  it  is  condemned.^  And  it  is  nowhere  recom- 
mended, although  presupposed  as  possible.^  The  one  passage 
often  quoted  in  its  favor  •  has  been  omitted  even  by  the  Revised 
Version  as  textually  untenable.  Whereas  it  is  distinctly  asserted 
that  his  disciples  did  not  fast.' 

V.  Jesus  saw  in  righteousness  a  "good  in  itself,"  but  the 
poetical  expressions  of  the  "sayings-collection"  speak  also  of 
reward.     At  the  same  time  the  "reward"  is  given  by  a  heavenly 

'  Matt.  II  :  19.  '  Matt.  9  :  14-17,  friends  of  bridegroom. 

*  Mark  9  :  42-45.  *  Matt.  6  :  16-17.  *  Matt.  9  :  15. 

*  Matt.  17:21,  "This  kind  gocth  not  out  save,"  etc.  '  Mark  2  :  i8. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  65 

Father  and  is  carefully  differentiated  from  the  "thanks"  that 
sinners  render  to  "sinners."^  The  Father  is  to  recompense 
(the  "openly"  of  Matthew  is  textually  to  be  rejected).'  Un- 
questioningly  and  submissively  and  in  secret  righteousness  is  to 
be  wrought,  and  all  "reward"  awaited  from  the  Father.  The 
character  of  the  "reward"  Jesus  distinctly  refused  to  define.^ 
We  are  to  aim  at  perfection  as  God  is  perfect,  and  he  expects  no 
reward,  "  sending  his  rain  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust."  *  Who 
loses  his  life  finds  it,  if  it  is  for  Jesus'  sake,  i.  e.,  for  righteousness' 
sake,*  and  a  righteous  man  receives  the  appropriate  righteous 
man's  reward.' 

Undoubtedly  Jesus  looked  forward  to  a  coming  Kingdom  in 
which  these  rewards  were  to  be  dispensed.^  In  Luke  the 
"reward"  is  eternal  life,  in  Matthew  it  is  "thrones  judging 
Israel."  It  is  impossible  to  say  just  how  far  Jesus  went  along 
this  line  of  apocalyptic  revelation,  or  just  what  the  really  under- 
lying thought  was.  The  ethical  advance  was  the  connecting 
even  of  the  apocalyptic  dream  with  a  righteousness  that  in  no 
way  bargains  but  trusts,  and  the  severing  of  the  very  concep- 
tion of  "reward"  from  the  coarse  material  aspects  of  it  with 
which  even  modern  representations  of  heaven  have  often  bur- 
dened the  thought. 

VI.  To  the  empiric  morality  of  the  day  Jesus  thus  gives  an 
idealistic  foundation.  He  probably  accepted  many  of  the  cur- 
rent ethical  maxims  of  his  generation  uncritically.  He,  for 
instance,  passes  no  comment  on  slavery  or  monarchical  institu- 
tions as  already  there  in  force,  nor  did  he  in  any  way  ethically 
examine  fundamental  rights  in  property  or  in  fact  any  of  the 
economical  conditions  whose  ethical  significance  we  are  begin- 
ning slowly  to  recognize.  Caesar  was  Ceesar,  and,  as  the  acknowl- 
edged authority  even  among  the  Jews,  was  one  of  the  facts  to  be 
taken  for  granted.    At  the  same  time  the  ethical  inspirations  of 

»  Luke  6:32.  '  Matt.  6  :  4. 

'  Mark  10  :  40.     (Scene  with  the  Sons  of  Zebedee.)  *  Matt.  5  :  45. 

»  Matt.  10  :  39.  •  Matt.  10  :  41. 
^  Matt.  19  :  28-29;   Luke  18  :  29. 


66  HISTORY   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Jesus  were  bound  to  be  critically  applied  to  empiric  morality 
in  every  succeeding  generation,  with  more  or  less  success. 

VII.  The  whole  teaching  of  Jesus  in  regard  to  personal 
morality  had  its  real  significance  in  its  relation  to  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  This  reign  of  Righteousness  could  only  be  introduced 
and  partaken  of  by  those  who  had  thus  given  themselves  up  to 
"watching  until  their  Lord  should  come."  The  establishment 
of  it  was  to  be  on  the  earth,  "Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  even  as 
in  heaven."  The  Kingdom  Parables  ^  reflect  the  fact  that 
Jesus  expected  that  Kingdom  suddenly  and  yet  as  the  culmina- 
tion of  a  divine  process.  It  was  to  be  sought  for.^  It  was  at  the 
same  time  growing  amidst  unfavorable  conditions.^  The  search- 
ing examination  of  the  "Kingdom  Parables,"  by  Jiilicher/  sup- 
ported as  he  is  by  Wendt  and  Weiss,  make  it  impossible  to  use 
with  confidence  the  details  of  these  parables  as  in  any  way  re- 
flecting the  direct  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  his  conception 
of  the  Reign  of  Heaven. 

The  details,  however,  are  not  the  important  features.  The 
character  of  the  Kingdom  is  steadily  represented  as  a  divine 
fulfilment  of  righteousness  on  earth,  introduced  by  calamity  to 
all  wrong-doers;  an  ethical  revolution  with  the  establishment  in 
the  world  at  large  of  a  condition  of  things  ideal  in  its  peace  and 
justice.  The  ethical  conceptions  are  enlargements  of  such 
pictures  as  are  found  in  the  Exilic  Isaiah.^  Jesus  had  compas- 
sion on  the  multitude,^  and  shared  their  national  feeling,  as 
witnessed  by  his  wonderful  lament  over  Jerusalem.''  The  re- 
demption was  not  to  be  simply  ethical,  it  was  to  be  national  and 
race  redemption.  It  is  evident  that  the  universalism  of  Jesus 
had  its  basis  in  the  prophetic  conception  of  the  ends  of  the  earth 
coming  up  to  Jerusalem  to  see  the  standard  of  Jehovah,  and 
bringing  with  them  the  exiled  wanderers  scattered  over  the  earth.* 
That  this  proclamation  of  Jehovah  was  in  the  first  instance  a 

'  Matt.  13.  =  Matt.   13  :  44.  ^  Matt.   13  :  39-43. 

*"Die  Glcichnisrcden  Jesu,"  vol.  II,  pp.  3-11,  128-133,  161-171,  514-538, 
546-554,  569-581,  581-585. 
^X'-    »  40  :  9-31,  41  :  1-20,  65  :  13-25,  etc.  •  Matt.  6  :  34. 

^  Matt.  23  :  37,  "O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem!"  '  Isaiah  49  :  22-23. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  67 

judgment  is  also  on  a  line  with  the  prophetic  conception.  In  the 
despair  of  the  solitary  reformer  before  the  massed  corruption  of 
his  time,  nothing  but  a  judgment  and  a  revolution  seems  ade- 
quate to  effect  the  changes  he  sees  must  come.  What  differ- 
entiated the  revolution  Jesus  expected  from  the  ordinary  political 
agitation  was  his  reliance  upon  an  ethically  and  spiritually 
trained  community  whose  existence  would  justify  the  judgment, 
and  whose  office  it  would  then  be  to  exhibit  the  Reign  of  God. 

This  community  was  organized,  so  far  as  we  can  speak  of 
organization,  on  the  old  Hebrew  democracy  basis.^  The  nations 
had  lords  who  exercised  authority;  it  was  not  to  be  so  in  the 
spiritual  community.  In  it  the  "  first  among  you  shall  be  your 
servant,"  for  "the  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto 
but  to  minister."  It  is  doubtful,  to  say  the  least,  whether  Jesus 
contemplated  any  rites  or  sacraments  as  marks  of  this  commu- 
nity, but  he  probably  expected  it  to  re-establish  the  spiritual 
Judaism  with  which  he  had  no  quarrel.  The  relations  that 
were  to  bind  men  together  were  the  bonds  of  obedience  and 
righteousness.^  Those  doing  the  will  of  his  Father  were  his 
brethren  and  his  sisters  and  his  mother.  These  bonds  were  of  a 
more  sacred  character  than  flesh  and  blood,  hence  in  the  time 
of  ultimate  stress  these  bonds  would  give  way  and  brother  would 
deliver  up  brother  to  death,  and  the  father  his  child.^  The 
proclamation  of  this  coming  ethical  Kingdom  would,  Jesus  felt, 
be  attended  with  the  same  risks  all  such  proclamations  had  to 
run,  but  he  had  firm  confidence  that  when  the  night  should  be 
darkest  suddenly  would  come  the  dawn  and  the  light.  All, 
therefore,  were  to  watch  and  continue  patient  in  the  hour  of  trib- 
ulation, as  knowing  that  the  hour  of  deliverance  was  at  hand. 

VIII.  The  ethical  teachings  of  Jesus  were  therefore  grounded 
in  faith  that  God  was  to  create  a  new  spiritual  and  ethical  com- 
munity. He  felt  himself  to  be  the  herald  of  that  coming  King- 
dom, and  to  be  its  founder  and  teacher.  In  a  certain  sense  that 
Kingdom  was  already  potentially  present,*  as  all  the  elements  of 

'  Matt.  20  :  20-28.  ^  Matt.  12  :  46-50. 

'  Matt.  10  :  21-22.  *  Luke  17  :  20-22. 


68  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

judgment  and  ethical  change  were  in  the  atmosphere,  although 
its  exact  time  of  fruition  could  not  be  well  determined.  This 
realization  of  righteousness  was  to  be  the  ethical  revelation  of 
God,  the  revealing  of  his  heart  and  will.  Jesus  felt  himself  to 
be  a  revealer  of  that  Father's  heart,  and  a  declarer  of  the  only 
true  life,  that  of  union  with  that  will  and  absolute  obedience  to 
it.  Whether  in  the  buoyant  confidence  of  his  earlier  proclama- 
tion, when  acceptance  of  his  message  by  his  own  generation 
seemed  a  possibility;  or  in  the  darkening  glooms  of  Gethsemane, 
when  the  day-dreams  faded  in  the  agony  of  great  spiritual  and 
physical  strain,  Jesus  held  firmly  to  the  ethical  character  of  a  lov- 
ing Father,  and  looked  with  assurance  past  the  struggles  of 
time  to  an  overwhelming  revelation  of  that  compassionate  and 
righteous  will  in  the  perfected  Kingdom  on  earth.  Thus  the 
Reign  of  God  became  the  real  organizing  ethical  ideal  and  the 
sustaining  hope  of  Jesus'  life.  It  was,  no  doubt,  a  bitter  heart- 
breaking disappointment  to  him  that  the  nation  refused  to 
accept  his  ethical  ideals  and  to  enter  at  once  upon  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Kingdom.  He,  however,  never  wavered  in  his 
faith  that  the  Kingdom  was  to  come,  and  when  he  turned  to  his 
disciples  it  was  not  to  found  an  institution  for  conquest,  but  a 
spiritual  ethical  communion  for  proclamation.  They  were  to 
eat  of  his  flesh  and  drink  of  his  life  and  live  his  ideals,  and  thus 
to  share  with  him  in  the  coming  ethical  triumphs  of  a  redeemed 
humanity.  He  could,  therefore,  make  no  compromises,  because 
his  Kingdom  was  *  not  of  this  world,  i.  e.,  did  not  share  its 
ideals  or  its  methods.  Righteousness  could  not  be  established 
on  any  basis  but  that  of  the  unquestioned  supremacy  of  the 
Father's  will.  In  the  description  of  the  temptations  on  the 
mount,  which  no  doubt  reflects  Jesus'  pictorial  account  of  his 
struggle  up  to  his  ideal,  Jesus  represents  himself  as  refusing 
empire  as  the  basis  of  the  Kingdom,  because  empire  involved 
compromise  and  partial  submission  to  another  will  than  the 
Father's.  Jesus  felt  himself  alone  on  the  heights  of  his  ethical 
dreaming,  and  yet  on  the  other  hand  such  was  the  \ividness  of 

'  iK  with  the  genitive  is  genitive  of  origin  {^k  tov  K6ff^Lov). 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  69 

his  faith  that  he  already  saw  empires  faUing,  and  even  then  heard 
the  cries  of  victory  in  the  coming  sudden  achievement. 

In  the  earliest  sources  Jesus  also  linked  the  ethical  triumph 
of  the  Kingdom  with  the  spiritual  energy  of  his  own  life  and 
nature.  He  was  himself  the  Bridegroom.*  He  could  ''forgive 
sin."  ^  The  Fourth  Gospel  only  emphasizes  what  is  already  in 
the  "sayings."  At  the  same  time  this  energy  is  not  magical, 
but  spiritual  and  ethical.  The  way  of  attainment  is  union  with 
him  in  doing  the  Father's  will. 

The  organic  basis,  therefore,  for  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is 
found  in  the  realization  of  the  loving  will  of  God  on  earth  and  in 
all  human  life,  and  in  the  revelation  of  God  as  essentially  com- 
passionate righteousness  in  the  coming  Kingdom.  The  dynamic 
force  by  which  this  is  to  be  realized  is  the  love  of  God  awakened 
in  men's  hearts  by  the  proclamation  of  his  free  forgiveness  to 
repentant  men,  enabling  them  to  live  the  forgiven  life. 

Sin  was  separation  from  the  Father,  and  meant  misery  and 
death.  Forgiveness  brought  men  back  to  the  Father's  house 
and  gave  them  peace.  This  peace  is  here  and  now,  but  is  to 
be  fully  made  manifest  when  the  Prince  of  this  World  is  fully 
overcome  and  God  reigns  supreme. 

II.      THE   ETHICS   OF  PAUL 

The  Pauline  interpretation  of  Jesus  is  based  upon  his  own 
personal  experience.^  Jesus  grew  up,  as  far  as  we  know,  in  the 
unchanging  sense  of  perfect  unity  of  life  and  will  with  his  Father. 

Literature. — Stevens,  G.  B.:  "The  Pauline  Theory";  New  York,  1892 
revised  edition,  1897. — Bruce,  A.  B.:  "St.  Paul's  Conception  of  Christianity" 
New  York,  1894. — Sabatier,  Auguste:  "L'Apotre  Paul";  3d  ed.;  Paris,  1896 
English  translation  by  G.  C.  Findley,  New  York,  1891. — Pfleiderer,  Otto:  "Der 
Paulinismus";  2d  ed.;  Leipsic,  1890;  also  in  English  translation  by  E.  Peters, 
New  York,  1885;  in  2  vols.;  London,  1877. — Juncker,  Alfred:  "Die  Ethik  des 
Apostels  Paulus";  Halle,  1904. — Titius:  "Neutestamentliche  Lehre  von  der 
Seligkeit";  Freiberg,  1895-1900;  4  vols. — Ernesti,  H.  F.:  "Die  Ethik  des  Apos- 
tels Paulus";   3d  ed.;    Gottingen,  1880. 

*  Mark  2:19.  '  Mark  2  :  5. 

'  Gal.  I  :  11-17;  cf.  Acts  9  :  1-9. 


70  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

He  had  indeed  advancing  visions  of  his  work  and  its  methods,* 
and  he  passed  through  critical  periods  in  his  spiritual  develop- 
ment as  at  Caisarea  Philippi "  or  at  Gethsemane,^  but  there  is 
no  evidence  of  any  anxious  searching  for  God  or  convulsive  re- 
action from  sin,  such  as  mark  so  generally  the  religious  experi- 
ences that  have  told  upon  the  world's  history  (Augustine, 
Francis  of  Assisi,  Loyola,  etc.).  To  love  God  with  all  his 
heart  and  his  neighbor  as  himself  was  for  Jesus  the  natural  and 
inevitable  outcome  of  the  true  relationship  of  the  son  to  the 
Father.*  With  Paul  the  case  was  very  different.  He  w^orshipped 
a  just  but  exacting  Ruler,  and  for  him  righteousness  had  consisted 
in  exact  fulfilment  of  legal  requirement.  He  longed  to  be 
"righteous,"  and  he  had  all  the  advantages  of  birth  and  training 
for  the  attainment  of  a  most  distinguished  career  of  righteous- 
ness,^ and  he  had  utterly  failed.^  Paul,  like  Luther,  found 
no  peace  in  the  most  exact  ritual  correctness.  Suddenly  he  saw 
God  in  Christ  Jesus,  no  longer  as  stern  law-giver,  but  as  Re- 
deeming Father,  and  entered  upon  the  freedom  of  loving  son- 
ship.^ 

Neither  Jesus  nor  Paul  had  any  serious  quarrel  with  the 
purer  type  of  theological  speculation  prevalent  in  Judaism. 
Paul  is  not  primarily  a  speculative  theologian.  God  was  for 
him  one.  His  will  was  absolute  and  holy.  He  was  present  by 
his  spirit  in  the  world.  The  age  was  evil,  and  yet  the  world 
belonged  to  God  and  must  one  day  acknowledge  his  governance. 
The  Scriptures  could  not  be  broken,  and  the  law  had  been  given 
by  Moses,  and  was  holy.  But  Christ  had  died  and  fulfilled  the 
law.  How  this  happened  Paul  illustrated  to  himself  from 
Hebrew  history  rather  than  cleared  it  up  by  any  intellectual 
process.^  Prophecy  had  foretold  the  Messianic  conquest  of  the 
whole  earth,  and  Paul's  Christology  moves  in  tlic  region  of 
Messianic  hope  of  the  more  spiritual  and  ethical  character.  The 
risen  Christ  was  coming  again,  and  God  in  Christ  Jesus  was  the 

'  Matt.  4  :  i-ii.  -  Mark  8  :  27-9  -.2.  '  Mark  14  :  32-42. 

*  Matt.  22  :  34-40.  '^  Phil.  3  :  4-6.  •  Rom.  7  :  7-24. 

'  Gal.  4  :  1-7.  *  Rom.  9  and  10. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  71 

Christian  hope  of  glory/  In  Jesus  the  Jewish  dream  of  sonship 
with  Jehovah  had  been  completely  fulfilled,  and  we  in  union 
with  Jesus  could  enter  upon  that  sonship  and  cry  Abba,  Father! 

In  the  Messianic  death  and  resurrection  the  whole  legal 
structure  of  the  past  had  reached  its  climax  and  end.  Hence- 
forth there  only  remained  the  proclamation  of  the  Messianic 
hope,  the  establishment  of  the  Messianic  group,  and  the  spread- 
ing abroad  of  the  good  news  that  Jesus  fulfilled  the  Messianic 
faith,  and  the  waiting  for  the  consummation  of  the  new  age  in 
which  corruption  and  rebellion,  sin  and  defilement  would  have 
no  place. 

This  sinless  new  age  takes  with  Paul  the  place  of  "the  Reign 
of  God,"  as  Jesus  used  that  term.  Paul  no  more  than  Jesus 
ever  ceased  to  be  a  loyal  Jew  in  thought,  in  hope,  or  in  expression. 
Wliat  Hellenistic  culture  he  may  have  had  contact  with  in 
Tarsus  made  no  impression  upon  his  fundamental  view  of  the 
world,  and  it  is  exceedingly  dangerous  to  a  right  understanding 
of  Paul  to  use  Greek  categories  in  exchange  for  the  Jewish  ones 
in  which  Paul's  thought  so  wholly  moves.  In  Paul  ethics  was 
linked  with  a  profound  spiritual  experience,  and  became  a 
religious  force  for  reorganizing  a  world  socially  and  economically 
as  well  as  morally  and  politically  bankrupt. 

Stoicism  had  no  such  saving  force,  for  it  was  aristocratic,  cold, 
unemotional,  individualistic,  and  non-religious.  Oriental  re- 
ligious fervors  had  no  final  saving  power  because  they  were  de- 
spondent and  essentially  non-ethical.  Neoplatonism  was  rela- 
tively barren  because  only  within  the  reach  of  those  who  needed  it 
least,  and  was  loaded  down  with  crude  and  false  views  of  the 
world  and  life.  Pauline  Christianity  swept  with  a  mighty  re- 
ligious enthusiasm  over  a  fevered  and  disorganized  life,  and 
brought  with  it  new  views  of  God's  loving  purpose  and  splendid 
vistas  of  ethical  triumphs  and  coming  victory  over  the  world 
of  sin  and  death. 

The  Pauline  literature  on  which  we  may  with  assurance  rely 
for  a  reconstruction  of  his  essential  message  is  mainly  polemical. 

'■  I  Thess.,  and  captivity  letters. 


72  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Leaving  aside  the  vexed  question  of  the  doubtful  epistles, 
Timothy,  Titus,  and  II  Thessalonians,  we  have  two  main 
groups  of  writings  in  which  Paul  unfolds  very  fully  his  ethical 
system.  His  main  interest  was  ethical  in  both  groups,  but  the 
background  of  the  first  group  is  theological  and  of  the  second 
Christological.  To  the  first  group  belong  Galatians,  Romans, 
and  the  two  letters  to  Corinth,  as  well  as  the  first  letter  to  the 
Thessalonians;  in  the  second  group  are  to  be  reckoned  Philip- 
pians,  Ephesians,  and  Colossians.  And  in  Philemon  we  have 
a  fine  illustration  of  Paul's  ethical  method. 

The  first  group  of  letters  deals  mainly  with  the  ethical  content 
of  the  word  "  righteous,"  and  the  second  group  treats  in  the  main 
of  the  springs  of  ethical  conduct.  These  divisions  are  not  and 
could  not  be  sharply  made.  Paul  was  dealing  practically  with 
the  extreme  ethical  needs  of  dreadfully  neglected  human  life. 
The  nearest  approach  to  a  systematic  treatise  is  the  letter  to  the 
Romans,  and  its  relatively  abstract  and  systematic  form  may 
in  part  be  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  writing  to  a  church  with 
which  as  such  he  was  not  personally  acquainted.  We  will  then 
deal  first  with  the  content  of  the  ethical  life. 

I.  Paul  had  no  idea  of  breaking  with  Judaism  any  more 
than  had  his  great  master,  but  Judaism  had  to  undergo  an  essen- 
tial change  if  it  was  to  fulfil  its  Messianic  mission.*  Legal 
exactness  was  no  substitute  for  essential  righteousness.  The 
proclamation  of  the  secondary  character  of  the  "Torah"  at 
once  exposed  Paul  to  honest  and  excited  criticism  by  Jew  and 
Jewish  Christian  alike.  As  a  matter  of  most  profound  experi- 
ence the  Jewish  community  saw  in  their  legal  and  ceremonial 
observances  the  only  effective  barriers  between  them  and  their 
children  and  the  horrible  corruptions  of  the  slave-ridden  world 
about  them.  The  Jewish  home  was  not  what  it  should  have 
been,^  but  it  maintained  itself  in  relative  security  against  the 
awful  deluge  described  in  Rom.  i  :  24-32  and  chiefly  because 
of  the  separations  resulting  from  the  law. 

To  the  pious  Jewish  Christian  the  only  way  to  the  morality 

»  Rom.  1 1  :  1-24.  '  John  7  :  53-8  :  1 1. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  73 

of  Jesus  was  to  become  a  Jew  as  Jesus  had  been  a  Jew,  and 
when  Paul's  converts  at  Galatia  went  uncircumcised  and 
Sabbathless  they  naturally  remonstrated.  Moreover,  when 
Paul  was  cited  as  an  authority  for  such  lawless  conduct  they  quite 
naturally  attacked  his  apostolic  authority,  and  denounced  him 
as  "lawless,"  a  destroyer  of  morality,  and  as  dangerous  to  the 
purity  of  the  church. 

The  poor  Galatians  were  much  taken  aback,  and  followed  the 
directions  of  the  new  teachers;  upon  which  Paul  wrote  the 
immortal  defence  of  his  religious  experience  and  apostolic  char- 
acter which  we  have  in  Galatians.  There  he  asserts  the  freedom 
of  sonship  with  God,*  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  whole  law 
in  the  one  word  "love."  ^  But  wherever  he  now  went  it  was 
only  to  meet  the  suspicions,  charges,  and  hatred  engendered  by 
his  very  radical  treatment  of  legalism.  Hence  in  preparing  his 
way  for  work  in  Rome  he  puts  his  argument  in  still  more  syste- 
matic form  as  we  have  it  in  the  wonderful  treatise  to  the  Romans. 

It  must  be  remembered  in  reading  Romans,  first  that  Paul  had 
no  quarrel  with  the  theology  of  his  critics,  and  secondly  that  the 
book  is  throughout,  and  not  in  the  last  chapters  only,  an  ethical 
treatise.  --' 

The  charge  against  Paul  was  that  he  was  undermining  moral- 
ity, and  was  anarchistic  and  dangerous  to  the  home  and  church 
life  of  the  really  God-fearing  community.  He  mingled  with  the 
uncircumcised  and  ate  with  the  unclean:  hence  his  critics  hon- 
estly thought  of  him  as  an  immoral  man,  as  the  average  High- 
land Scotchman  would  now  regard  the  Sabbath  observance  of 
even  a  pious  German  as  stamping  him  as  unchristian.  Paul 
was  for  the  pious  Jewish-Christians  a  corrupter  of  youth,  and 
they  saw  in  him  a  tendency  toward  all  kinds  of  ethical  looseness 
and  license.     To  this  charge  Paul  addresses  himself. 

Paul  was  therefore  compelled  to  deal  fully  with  the  real  content 
of  the  word  righteous.^  With  great  tact  therefore,  after  the 
first  greeting,  he  puts  himself  en  rapport  with  his  readers  by 

»  Gal.  5:1.  ^  Gal.  5  :  14. 

'  P^'^?  dlKaios  or  in  its  abstract  form  ^il"!?  diKatoffijvr]. 


74  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

sharply  denouncing  in  almost  fierce  abruptness  the  hideous  sins 
of  the  heathen  world  which  he  was  charged  with  condoning,  but 
which  he  hates  as  they  hate  them,  and  for  which  he  has  a  remedy. 
He  is  not  ashamed  of  his  gospel;  it  is  a  divine  dynamic  making 
for  "  righteousness."  ^  It  excludes  absolutely  the  dreadful  doings 
described  in  Rom.  i  :  18-32  against  which  God's  just  wrath 
is  revealed.  Paul  puts  himself  at  once  on  record  as  having  no 
patience  or  sympathy  with  the  man  who  leaves  Judaism  simply 
that  he  may  be  free  to  sink  in  this  pool  of  corruption.^  God  will 
judge  all,  and  his  wrath  will  mete  out  to  all  according  to  conduct.' 
From  this  judgment  none  can  escape  by  simply  leaving  Judaism. 

But,  alas,  Paul  goes  on  to  show,  there  are  Jews  who  glory  in 
the  law,  are  ceremonially  correct,  who  deem  themselves  guides 
to  the  heathen,  but  who  as  a  matter  of  fact  cause  God's  name  to 
be  blasphemed  by  their  immoralities,  so  that  it  should  be  apparent 
to  all  that  mere  ritual  correctness  was  not  "righteousness." 
These  Jews  were  ritually  correct!  Hence,  he  argues,  Judaism 
is  not  a  letter  but  a  spirit.    Circumcision  must  be  of  the  heart.* 

This  dreadful  experience  of  the  powerlcssness  of  ritual  and 
legal  correctness  to  really  keep  a  man  pure  raised  a  fearful 
question.  The  Jew  had  suffered  terribly  for  his  faith.  The 
pious  Jew  saw  in  "righteousness"  for  himself  and  loved  ones  the 
reward  of  his  faithfulness.  If  the  law  could  not  secure  this 
then  all  his  sufferings  were  in  vain.  "What  did  it  profit"  to  be 
a  Jew  and  suffer  the  exclusions  and  ignominies  of  circumcision?  "^ 

Paul's  answer  to  this  question  is  wholly  ethical  in  its  interest, 
and  is  very  noble  and  lofty  in  character.  He  makes  four  points, 
the  last  one  in  the  fifth  chapter,  after  a  long  parenthesis.  First, 
to  the  Jew  belongs  the  high  honor  of  a  peculiar  service.  To  him 
were  committed  the  oracles  of  God.  He  at  least  might  know 
the  will  of  God.*  Secondly,  although  the  Jew  has  not  kept 
the  law,  this  was  his  unrighteousness  and  reveals  simply  the  fact 
that  he  is  with  the  Greeks  under  a  common  condemnation,  all 
have  sinned,  and  all  will  be  judged.     Thirdly,  but  as  God  is  the 

'  Rom.   I  :  16.  *  Rom.  2  :  1-16.  '  Rom.  2  :  6. 

*  Rom.  2  :  17-29.  *  Rom.  3:1.  '  Rom.  3  :  2-8. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  75 

God  of  both  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile,  so  he  has  provided  a 
righteousness,  and  made  it  manifest  which  is  by  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  set  forth  to  be  a  mercy  seat  through  faith,  and  this  right- 
eousness is  accessible  to  all  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  the  sins 
done  before  time  are  borne  with  in  the  goodness  and  forbear- 
ance of  God,  so  that  a  man  is  justified  apart  from  all  legal  cor- 
rectness, and  both  the  circumcision  and  the  uncircumcision  are 
justified  by  faith. 

At  this  point  the  historical  question  emerges  which  Paul  seeks 
to  meet.  All  recognized  the  fact  that  Abraham  was  "8iKaLo<;,'^ 
or  a  "righteous  man."  Now  Paul  links  all  "righteousness"  with 
a  dynamic  faith  in  Christ,  and  so  seems  to  leave  no  place  for 
Abraham.  With  great  dialectic  skill  Paul  turns  the  objection 
into  an  argument  for  his  position.  He  makes  three  points. 
(a)  Abraham's  righteousness  was  "reckoned  to  him"  and  was 
therefore  of  grace  and  not  of  works,*  a  fact  that  David  regarded 
as  a  blessing,  (b)  This  righteousness,  moreover,  was  reckoned 
to  him  while  yet  uncircumcised,  that  he  might  be  the  father  of 
all  who  live  in  faith  outside  circumcision;  ^  and  so,  as  no  part  of 
the  ritual  law  is  more  important  than  circumcision,  it  is  evident 
that  it  is  a  mere  seal  of  something  more  vital,  i.  e.,  of  the  faith 
needed  by  both  the  circumcision  and  the  uncircumcision  for  the 
attainment  of  true  "righteousness."  (c)  Hence  he  who  would 
become  a  "  SiKaioi;, "  or  righteous  man,  must  not  imitate  only  the 
outward  sign,  but  take  part  in  the  vitalizing  faith  which  made 
Abraham  the  father  of  the  faithful.^ 

Paul  thus  makes  it  clear  that  he  has  no  legal  forgiveness  in 
mind,  but  a  dynamic  force  that  will  actually  enable  a  man  to  live 
the  righteous  life.  And  this  dynamic  is  of  grace,  through  the 
love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  in  Christ  Jesus.^  The 
fifth  chapter  is  given  up  to  the  exposition  of  the  gift  of  God  by 
grace  of  a  free  forgiveness  on  the  basis  of  one  act  of  righteousness, 
as  sin  came  by  one  act  of  disobedience.  Sin  came  as  a  dynamic 
for  unrighteousness,  and  this  loving  faith  appears  as  a  dynamic 
for  producing  righteousness.     This  brings  Paul  back  to  his 

*  Rom.  4  :  3-8.  ^  Rom.  4:11.  '  Rom.  4  :  23-25.  *  Rom.  5  :  5. 


76  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

argument  concerning  the  function  of  the  law,  and  he  argues, 
fourthly  and  lastly,  that  the  law  came  in  to  make  trespass 
abound  that  grace  might  still  more  abound. 

This  was  no  doubt  one  of  the  points  Paul  had  often  argued, 
and  to  which  objection  must  have  been  most  strongly  taken. 
"What,"  said  the  objectors,  "shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace 
may  abound?"  This  was  the  charge  of  lawlessness  so  often 
levelled  at  Paul,  and  he  meets  it  at  once.  "No,"  he  exclaims  in 
the  sixth  chapter,  "let  this  never  be  so!"  We  are  dead  to  sin. 
His  answer  is  a  twofold  one.  (i)  We  are  in  vital  union  with 
Jesus  Christ,  who  died  once  to  sin,  and  rose,  and  we  are  arisen 
in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection.  This  is  Paul's  teaching  of  a 
vital,  mystic  union  with  the  risen  Christ,  by  which  an  actual 
force  for  living  the  righteous  life  becomes  ours.^  (2)  We  are 
now  bond-servants  of  righteousness  as  once  we  were  bond- 
servants of  unrighteousness.  We  are  free  from  sin  as  once  we 
were  free  from  righteousness.  We  must  therefore  now  bring 
forth  fruit  unto  holiness  as  we  once  brought  forth  fruit  unto 
iniquity,  and  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal 
life.^  For  Paul  ethical  purity  is  life  and  unrighteousness  is 
death. 

Paul  thus  only  pushes  to  its  logical  outcome  the  old  prophetic 
description  of  Jehovah.  He  is  righteousness,  and  to  share  his 
life  is  to  live  righteously.  And  we  share  his  life  in  union  with 
the  risen  Christ,  for  Paul  in  the  seventh  chapter  pushes  the 
image  of  death  to  all  outward  legal  regulation,  and  life  to  a 
spirit  of  righteousness,  under  the  figure  drawn  from  the  marriage 
relation.'  Then  he  plunges  into  personal  experience.  The 
law  has  revealed  to  him  in  the  past  his  utter  helplessness.  The 
law  was  holy  but  could  only  flash  its  light  upon  the  darkness  of  a 
helpless  longing.  It  was  powerless  to  gi\e  peace.  For  even 
while  Paul  felt  in  his  mind  the  holiness  of  the  law,  he  had  no 
power  in  his  flesh  to  keep  its  precepts. 

Then  came  deliverance.  The  spirit  of  life  *  in  Christ  Jesus 
brought  the  power  to  subdue  the  flesh  and  its  passions;  as  Christ 

'  Rom.  6  :  2-14.         "  Rom.  6  :  15-23         '  Rom.  7  :  1-6.         *  Rom.  8  :  2. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  77 

Jesus  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh  and  gained  control  of  it,  so 
all  who  are  not  in  the  flesh,  i.  e.,  living  in  its  ideals  and  bond- 
servants to  its  passions,  by  union  with  him  may  live  the  life  of 
the  spirit.  Here,  then,  Paul  develops  his  teaching  of  an  ethical 
dualism  as  a  matter  of  profound  personal  experience.  There  is  ^ 
a  mind  of  the  flesh  {a-cip^)  and  a  mind  of  the  spirit.  This  mind 
of  the  flesh  has  a  natural  aflfinity  with  the  body  (aMfia)  and  the 
mind  of  the  spirit  a  natural  affinity  to  the  human  spirit,  but  it  is 
not  at  all  clear  that  Paul  so  far  left  the  healthy  thought  of  all 
Judaism  as  to  think  of  the  body  as  in  itself  evil.  It  was  only 
the  seat  of  this  antagonistic  principle,  and  would  be  redeemed  by 
the  spirit  of  Him  who  raised  up  Christ  Jesus.^  Thus  we  enter 
upon  our  highest  freedom  when  we  are  raised  as  sons  of  God 
with  Christ  Jesus  and  cry  Abba,  Father! ' 

The  closing  part  of  the  eighth  chapter  is  a  splendid  identifica- 
tion of  all  suffering  with  the  redemptive  life  and  suffering  of 
Christ  Jesus  just  so  far  as  these  sufferings  bind  us  to  the  love  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus,  from  which  naught  can  separate  us.  Thus 
for  Paul  aU  the  suffering  of  the  world  points  to  a  coming  re- 
demption, for  nothing  can  separate  us  from  such  love  as  God 
has  revealed  in  Christ  Jesus. 

At  this  point  Paul  again  interrupts  his  argument  to  defend  him- 
self against  the  charge  of  an  unpatriotic  depreciation  of  Judaism. 
Nothing  is  dearer  to  his  heart,  and  he  could  wish  himself  sepa- 
rated even  from  Christ  for  his  brethren's  sake.*  He  revels  in 
the  glorious  history  of  past  possession  of  God.^  At  the  same 
time  he  must  also  recognize  the  fact  of  a  dual  Israel.  There  is  a 
spiritual  Israel,  larger  than  the  circumcision,  *  and  this  spiritual 
Israel  is  not  such  by  virtue  of  any  works  or  legal  claims,  but 
simply  in  the  inscrutable  election  of  an  omnipotent  God,  making 
vessels  of  wrath  as  the  potter  makes  his  dishes,  willing  to  show 
both  his  power  and  his  goodness.'  Paul  is  dealing  here  in  no 
sense  with  the  philosophical  question  of  freedom,  which  could 

'Rom.  8:6.  ^  Rgm  g  .  jo_ii,  »  Rom.  8  :  12-17. 

*  Rom.  9:3.  *  Rom.  9:5.  ^  Rom.  9  :  8. 

^  Rom.  9  :  19-29. 


78  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

hardly  arise  from  his  stand-point,  but  with  ethical  freedom 
within  the  limits  set  by  the  omnipotent  purpose  of  God.  It  is 
a  national  election  to  special  service  with  which  Paul  deals  in 
the  famous  ninth  chapter,  and  he  charges  Israel  with  failure  as 
pronounced  as  that  of  the  nations  to  attain  to  righteousness, 
and  for  the  same  reason — they  sought  it  not  by  faith  but  by 
ritual  correctness,  whereas  the  nations  who  now  seek  it  in  faith 
do  attain  to  it/ 

Paul  argues  further  that  this  confusion  of  legal  correctness 
with  actual  righteousness  is  what  is  hindering  even  those  who 
have  a  zeal  for  God  among  the  Israelites;^  hence  it  has  hap- 
pened that  the  nations  have  entered  in  where  Judaism  has 
failed.^  Not,  indeed,  that  Judaism  has  completely  failed. 
There  remains  a  large  remnant  *  whom  God's  grace  has  spared 
and  chosen,  and  indeed  the  Gentiles  will  need  to  remember 
that  if  God  did  not  spare  the  tree  onto  which  he  grafted  the 
Gentile  church,  no  more  will  he  spare  the  branches  if  they  fail 
to  stand  in  that  righteousness  which  Paul  regards  as  the  goal  of 
all  being  and  the  secret  of  all  life.  He  hopes,  moreover,  that 
Israel  will  be  provoked  into  a  saving  faith  by  the  Gentile  church, 
and  to  this  end  he  pleads  for  that  complete  consecration  of  life 
(__to  the  perfect  will  of  God  which  alone  is  rational  service.^ 
^  What,  then,  is  the  content  of  this  righteous  life  ?  In  pursuit  of 
'  his  plan  to  demonstrate  the  ethical  character  of  his  gospel, 
Paul  goes  on  to  explicate  the  actual  content  of  the  ethical  life. 
He  deals  first  with  the  personal  temper  and  attitude  of  the 
ethical  man,®  including  the  forgiveness  of  enemies  and  the 
overcoming  evil  with  good.  Then  he  sketches  the  ethical  life 
in  its  relations  to  the  social  organization,  thought  of,  however, 
as  an  outside  power,'  and  to  the  social  organization  thought  of 
in  the  second  place  as  neighborhood,^  and  then  to  the  community 
of  faith  thought  of  as  organized  in  a  religious  community,*'  and 
so  he  closes  the  ethical  treatise  with  an  exhortation  to  common 

'  Rom.  9  :  30-33.        ^  Rom.  10  :  1-3.      '  Rom.  10  :  21.       '  Rom.  11  :  4-5. 

*  Rom.  12  :  1-2.         "  Rom.  12  :  3-21.    '  Rom.  ij  :  1-7.     '  Rom.  13  :  8-14. 

*  Rom.  14  :  I- 1 5  :  7. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  79 

work  and  personal  testimony  to  the  ethical  effectiveness  of  his 
proclamation  of  which  so  many  seem  afraid.  ^ 

The  content  of  righteousness  is  therefore,  according  to  Paul,  ' 
loving  faith  working  out  the  will  of  God  in  all  life.  He  opposes  to 
all  ritual  and  legal  correctness  the  spirit  of  loving  obedience  by 
faith  in  God  as  seen  in  the  life,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ.  From  this  loving  faith  will  proceed  that  which  the  law 
failed  to  produce,  the  really  ethical  life. 

Thus  the  ethics  of  Paul  are  based  on  the  liberty  of  loving  son- 
ship  through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  For  Paul  this  faith  was 
dynamic  in  character,  a  force  that  alone  could  overcome  sin 
and  death  and  give  victory  over  the  world.  This  was  his 
own  personal  experience.  What  the  authority  of  law,  perfectly 
and  sincerely  recognized  as  holy,  could  not  do  in  producing 
ethical  character,  because  of  the  weakness  of  the  flesh,  he  found 
could  be  done  by  faith  working  through  love. 

Throughout  Romans  the  contrast  is  between  faith  (Trio-Tt?) 
and  law  (w>09),  but  in  chapter  5:5  the  "love  of  God" 
{a^d-TTT)  Tov  deov)  is  spoken  of  as  the  spring  of  action,  and  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  standing  evidence  of  the  love  of  God.  The  supreme 
sacrifice  of  love  is  a  revelation  of  the  Father's  love  and  redeeming 
purpose  overcoming  the  wrath  of  God  (opY?;  tov  deov).  The 
transition,  however,  from  faith  to  love,  and  the  ultimate  identi- 
fication of  the  two,  is  not  fully  made  in  Romans. 

In  his  letters,  however,  to  the  church  at  Corinth,  the  ethical 
system  of  Paul  has  a  further  practical  unfolding. 

To  the  man  or  community  used  to  the  pressure  of  external 
coercion,  and  accustomed  to  make  such  external  coercion  the 
measure  of  morality,  the  first  period  of  freedom  is  fraught  with 
danger.  Liberty  to  do  right  degenerates  into  license  to  do  evil. 
The  boy  at  college  after  the  strict  discipline  of  a  home,  the 
church  after  the  Reformation,  and  the  litde  religious  community 
at  Corinth  are  but  examples  of  the  common  historical  happening. 
Paul's  doctrine  of  freedom  from  the  outward  coercion  of  law, 
and  subjection  to  the  inward  coercion  of  faith  working  by  love 
was  not  only  misunderstood  by  his  foes,  but  misinterpreted  by 


8o  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

those  who  thought  themselves  his  friends.  The  thing  Paul's 
enemies  charged  his  gospel  with — lawlessness — appeared  in 
Corinth.  No  man  and  no  community  was  ever  quite  "ripe"  for 
the  full  exercise  of  ethical  freedom.  We  learn  by  our  mistakes 
and  abuses.  The  community  at  Corinth  broke  up  into  quarrel- 
ling sects,  and  fornication  appeared  in  a  most  disgusting  shape. 
All  sorts  of  questions  of  casuistry,  some  exceedingly  intricate, 
appeared.  For  Paul  it  seemed  very  simple  to  decide  at  any 
moment  just  what  was  the  "loving  thing"  to  do,  but  for  raw, 
ignorant  followers  there  was  wanting  both  his  religious  genius 
and  the  trained  purpose. 

Even  Paul  was  not  always  able  to  separate  between  social 
conventions  and  ethical  laws,  as  in  his  treatment  of  woman's 
dress.^  And  Paul  himself  begins  the  substitution  of  "  tradition  "  ^ 
for  the  body  of  legal  enactment  he  so  firmly  rejected,  and  he 
himself  laid  the  foundation  for  a  judging  and  condemning  com- 
munity with  the  power  of  the  social  ban,  and  even  the  assumption 
of  divine  authority  in  inflicting  the  penalty  for  the  soul's  sake.^ 

At  the  same  time  he  knew  what  must  be  at  the  root  of  the  new 
life,  and  the  letter  to  Corinth  introduces  another  antithesis. 
The  danger  of  substituting  for  "faith"  a  "knowledge"  (71/600-19) 
or  "wisdom"  {co^Ca)  was  peculiarly  Hellenistic.  Paul  real- 
ized that  not  upon  knowledge  any  more  than  on  the  outward 
coercions  of  a  legal  system  could  the  ethical  life  be  built.  Hence, 
after  meeting  the  pressing  questions  of  discipline  and  casuistry 
forced  upon  him  by  the  disorders  of  Corinth,  he  develops  that 
which  he  only  hints  at  in  Romans,  his  doctrine  of  the  effective 
spring  of  ethical  action.     This  spring  is  love  (aydTrrj). 

Faith  and  hope  function  constantly,  but  love  remains  the 
eternal  spring  of  life  and  action.  In  this  letter  Paul  uses  also 
the  phrase  "  Kingdom  of  God,"  *  but  it  has  not  the  same  content 
that  the  phrase  bears  in  the  synoptic  usage,  but  rather  only  one 
side  of  that  content,  the  eschatological. 

'  I  Cor.  II  :  2-16. 

'  Kadut  iraplbdiKa  vfiiv,  rij  irapaZbvui  Atarax*'''*-     I  Cor.  1 1  :  a. 

»I  Cor.  5  :3-7.  *!  Cor.  15  :  50. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  8i 

The  triumph  of  the  new  age  was  to  culminate  with  the  reap- 
pearance of  the  risen  Lord,  and  all  would  be  changed:  mortality 
(to  OvrjTov)  would  put  on  incorruption  {a^OapaCa),  the  goal 
of  the  ethical  endeavor  would  be  fully  realized  in  the  Messianic 
reign.  This  eschatology  is  bound  up  with  the  ethical  struggle  in 
the  first  letter  to  the  Thessalonians/  This  new  life  of  sanctifi- 
cation  is  already  the  new  age,  but  the  consummation  is  not  yet, 
and  comes  as  a  thief  in  the  night,  bringing  condemnation  to  the 
wicked  and  splendid  justification  to  those  appointed  unto  salva- 
tion in  Christ  Jesus.^  The  whole  scheme  of  Jewish  rewards 
and  punishments,  fitting  but  badly  as  it  does  into  the  Pauline 
ethical  construction,  is,  however,  always  there,  and  indeed  forms 
at  times  a  very  real  moment.'  The  content  of  the  righteous  life, 
the  purity,  peace,  goodness,  and  all  the  fruits  of  the  spirit,  *  are 
to  have  a  timeless  exemplification  in  the  new  age. 

IV.  The  character  of  the  love  which  is  with  Paul  the  spring 
of  ethical  action  finds  its  fullest  exposition  in  the  letters  ^  to  the 
Philippians,  Ephesians  and  Colossians.  The  type  is  found 
in  the  humble  loving  service  of  Christ  Jesus.*  The  mind  of 
Jesus  is  to  be  in  us,  and  we  are  to  know  in  it  the  power  of  his 
resurrection,  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  and  are  to  be  con- 
formed to  his  death.'  This  identification  in  suffering  and  service 
is  to  be  so  complete  that  the  believer  fills  out  what  was  lacking 
in  the  redemptive  sufferings  of  Christ.^  This  love  is  primarily 
for  the  "household  of  faith,"  ^  but  the  whole  "Kingdom  of  the 
Son  of  his  love,"  ^^  and  then  the  whole  new  order  is  the  ultimate 
object  of  this  loving  service.  In  these  letters  the  writer  is  forced 
to  oppose  the  life  of  service  in  love  as  the  spring  of  action  to 
"philosophy  and  vain  deceit"  "  proposed  as  a  substitute.  The 
mystic  union  of  the  church  with  the  risen  Christ,  as  a  loving 

*  As  II  Thessalonians  furnishes  the  ethical  student  no  new  point  of  view,  it  is 
for  us  unimportant  to  discuss  its  genuine  Pauline  character. 

2 1  Thess.  5:9.  'I  Cor.  15  :  12-19.  *  Gal.  5  :  22. 

*  These  letters  are  Pauline,  whether  by  Paul  or  no,  and  represent  the  progress 
of  his  thought.  ^  Phil.  2  :  i-ii.  ''  Phil.  3  :  10-16. 

»  Col.  I  :  24.  "  Gal.  6  :  10.  '"Col.  1  :  13. 

"  Col.  2  :  8. 


V 


82  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

fellowship,  becomes  more  and  more  his  theme/  and  each  letter 
ends  with  practical  exhortation  and  explication  of  the  sanctified 
life.  Salvation  is  indeed  sanctification,^  it  is  light  as  over  against 
darkness.  Christ  is  to  dwell  in  our  hearts  through  faith  that 
we  may  be  rooted  in  love.^  And  more  and  more  Christ  Jesus 
becomes  for  the  writer  the  absolute  and  complete  manifestation 
of  the  Father's  loving  redeeming  will. 

This  loving  divine  will  is  to  be  our  will,  this  love  our  love,  and 
if  this  be  the  case  then  in  the  true  freedom  of  sons  we  live  the 
life  of  complete  service,  and  evil  will  not  be  so  much  as  named 
among  us  as  becomes  "holy  ones."  ^  This  conception  of  the 
community  of  "  holy  ones"  is  taken  from  the  Old  Testament,  but 
the  spring  of  action  is  no  longer  fear  and  the  coercions  of  an 
external  law,  but  an  actual  indwelling  of  the  invisible  but  risen 
Christ,  who  is  present  in  the  holy  community  for  their  complete 
sanctification,  and  who  will  ultimately  reveal  himself  in  his  body 
which  is  the  church.^ 

For  the  writer  the  spiritual  man  as  such  could  not  sin,  but  we 
are  still  in  the  flesh  (eV  t^  aapKi)  and  have  temptations  of  the 
flesh,  as  in  Gal.  4  :  13-15,  which  must  be  overcome,  and  he 
does  not  count  himself  as  having  laid  hold  of  but  as  pressing  on 
to  the  prize,*  hence  his  practical  experience  taught  him  that 
those  who  were  "spiritual"  must  restore  such  as  were  taken  in 
a  fault,  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  lest  they  also  be  tempted/  and 
discipline  of  the  flesh  was  necessary  to  maintain  the  supremacy 
of  the  spirit.^  The  spiritual  life  on  earth  was  a  conflict,  and  that 
not  with  things  visible,  but  with  the  invisible ;  not  simply  against 
flesh  and  blood,  but  against  spiritual  wickedness,®  and  the  final 
triumph  would  come  only  with  the  appearance  of  the  Lord  and 
the  complete  establishment  of  the  sinless  age.'"  The  dualism  of 
Paul  is  therefore  ethical  and  not  metaphysical.  The  flesh  is 
only  the  occasion  of  sin  and  is  not  in  itself  sinful,  and  spiritual 
forces  are  mustered  on  both  sides  of  the  conflict. 

*  Eph.  3  :  1-19.  '  Eph.  5  :  1-14.  '  Eph.  3:17.  *  Eph.  5  :  3. 
"Col.  1:24.               «  Phil.  3  :  13-14.         'Gal.  6:1.  » I  Cor.  9  :  27. 

*  Trvtu/ittTiKA  T^s  irovTjplai  Eph.  6:12.       '"I  Thess.  4  :  13-18. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  83 

About  the  nature  of  the  resurrection  body  Paul  did  not  care 
too  closely  to  inquire;  it  would,  however,  be  free  from  corrup- 
tion and  be  spiritually  complete/  This  hope  was  based  upon 
the  triumph  of  Christ  over  death  and  the  grave,  whose  power  and 
sting  were  sin.^  The  ultimate  triumph  is  ethical,  and  the  goal 
the  establishment  of  a  kingdom  of  love  and  of  righteousness,  in 
which  all  members  have  their  place  and  function,  and  without 
envy  or  jealousy,^  with  Christ  Jesus  as  the  head  and  this  com- 
munity as  his  body.* 

In  the  application  of  his  fundamental  principle  to  the  conduct 
of  life,  with  which  Paul  closes  all  his  main  treatments^  and 
which  adorn  all  hi  letters,  Paul  deals  largely  with  the  personal 
life  and  the  life  of  the  small  ecclesiastical  community.  The 
early  Christian  could  not  be  held  responsible  for  that  social 
order,  which  Jesus  and  Paul  rightly  regarded  as  rapidly  passing 
away  and  as  in  itself  condemned.  Any  social  order  was,  how- 
ever, ordained  of  God,  and  obedience  to  it  within  the  limits  of 
the  primary  obedience  to  Christ  was  the  duty  of  every  Christian.® 
In  the  beautiful  little  note  to  Philemon  returning  him  a  slave 
whom  Paul  had  converted  to  the  hope  of  the  gospel,  Paul  puts 
the  whole  relationship  between  man  and  man  on  such  a  basis 
that  its  logic  excludes  not  only  slavery  but  most  of  what  to-day 
is  held  as  being  legitimate  in  the  wage-relationship,  as  the  slave- 
relationship  was  held  legitimate  in  Paul's  time. 

Onesimus  was  to  be  received  as  a  brother,  and  in  the  well- 
regulated  family  the  brother  is  neither  exploited  nor  devoured. 
Brotherhood  does  not  exclude  service,  and  the  slave  is  to  remain 
a  slave  if  God  so  wills  ^  (Philemon  13),  but  it  includes  mutual 
service,*  and  the  bond  is  not  financial  profit,  but  love  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

The  holy  community  was  one  of  activity,  and  working  with  the 
hands  for  daily  bread  was  a  Christian  obligation  in  which  Paul 

» I  Cor.  IS  :  35-45.  ==  I  Cor.  15  :  55-56.  '  I  Cor.  12:12-31. 

*  I  Cor.  12  :  27. 

*  Rom.  12  :  1-15  :  4;  Gal.  5  :  13-6  :  10;  Eph.  4  :  25-6  :  20;  Phil.  3  :  1-4  :  9; 
Col.  3  :  5-4  :  6  *  Rom.  13  :  1-6.  '  I  Cor.  7:21.  *  Philem.  19. 


84  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

himself  had  his  share.  So  that  the  saying  in  II  Thess.  3  :  10 
and  the  account  there  given  of  Paul's  habit,  if  not  from  his 
pen,  is  certainly  in  accord  with  his  habit  and  spirit. 

On  sexual  purity  Paul  naturally  laid  great  stress,  as  the 
family  is  with  him  as  with  Jesus  the  constant  type  of  the  recon- 
structed society,  and  the  relationship  of  husband  to  wife  the 
most  fitting  figure  of  the  relationship  of  Christ  to  his  church.' 
To  defile  the  body  was,  for  Paul,  to  defile  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  to  make  a  member  of  Christ's  body  impure.^  The  virt- 
ues Paul  emphasizes  are  those  of  spirit  and  heart,  and  the  simple 
daily  life  of  the  average  convert  is  glorified  by  making  it  a  com- 
munion with  God  in  Christ  Jesus, 
r  When  one  contrasts  the  ideal  character  as  drawn  from  Paul's 
letters  with  any  reasonable  fulfilment  of  Plato's  ideal,  one  is 
struck  with  the  softer,  tenderer,  more  child-like  conception.  The 
self-centred,  almost  haughty,  aristocratic  righteousness  of  the 
good  man,  the  just  citizen,  the  noble  patriot,  the  loving  friend, 
and  true  seeker  after  truth  in  Plato's  dialogues  seems  cold  and 
beautiful  as  a  Grecian  marble,  compared  to  the  loving  gentleness 
of  the  Christian  ideal.  Not  indeed  that  Paul's  picture  is  ful- 
filled either  in  the  feminine  type  or  the  monkish  ideal,  but  in  the 
warmer,  softer  lines  we  recognize  a  distinctly  new  ethical  ideal 
emerging  from  the  religious  enthusiasm  born  of  his  contact  with 
Christ  Jesus. 

His  picture  of  the  relation  of  husband  to  wife,  of  child 
to  parent,  of  fellow-Christian  to  fellow-Christian,  whether  bond 
or  free,  of  citizen  even  to  the  oppressive  and  passing  social  order, 
is  entirely  different  from  any  painted  even  on  the  heights  of 
Roman  Stoicism  or  amidst  the  beauties  of  Platonic  ideals. 

Most  striking  and  impressive  is  the  vision  of  God  in  the  face 
of  Christ  Jesus  as  Paul  saw  and  proclaimed  him.  The  right- 
eousness of  God  is  no  legal  exactness,  no  unrelenting  enforcement 
of  holy  law.  God's  grace  is  free;  we  are  the  free  sons  of  a  Father 
whose  love  has  been  not  only  exhibited  but  poured  out  in  the 
life  and  blood  of  his  Son,  and  what  that  Father  longs  for  is  our 

'  Eph.  s  :  22-33.  '  I  Cor.  6  :  12-20. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  85 

sanctification,  that  we  may  be  companions  of  his  holiness  and 
sit  together  in  heavenly  places  with  Christ  Jesus. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  especially  the  dogmatic  system 
of  the  Pauline  letters.  It  is  easy  to  show  that  as  we  have  them 
Christology  is  not  quite  clear  or  self-consistent,  and  that  the 
doctrine  of  redemption  moves  in  lines  still  Judaistic.  Perhaps 
had  we  more  of  Paul's  teaching,  or  had  it  in  a  less  polemical 
form,  some  things  now  obscure  might  be  cleared  up,  though  it  is 
equally  possible  that  more  difficulties  would  arise. 

Such  was  Paul's  genius  and  so  lofty  and  splendid  his  ethical 
point  of  view  that  he  could  not  make  room  for  the  real  diffi- 
culties his  doctrine  of  ethical  freedom  raises.  We  all  come  out 
from  authority  timidly  and  looking  back  to  the  easy  flesh-pots 
of  past  slavery.  Few  men  shake  off  the  chains  wholly.  The 
strain  is  tremendous,  and  Paul's  poor  little  household  churches 
seemed  from  any  past  race-experience  wholly  unfitted  for  the 
struggle.  Paul's  faith  was  in  the  supernatural  indwelling  grace 
of  the  forgiven  life,  but  more  than  once  he  had  to  appeal  to  his 
own  authority  and  even  to  threaten  with  spiritual  penalty.  But 
where,  then,  is  the  spiritual  independence?  Who  is  to  decide 
between  Paul  claiming  independence  of  even  the  apostles,*  and 
some  prophet  claiming  independence  of  Paul?  The  church 
was  to  try  the  spirits  whether  they  were  of  God  or  not,  but  by 
what  standard?  The  only  answer  Paul  could  give  was  "by  my 
gospel."  Paul  himself  had  to  go  back  to  a  tradition  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  communion  feast,  as  "received  from  the 
Lord,"  ^  and  even  with  him  the  traditions  were  not  lightly  to  be 
despised.  He  himself  felt  that  even  while  throwing  aside  a 
whole  system  of  past  legal  enactment,  in  some  way  its  perfection 
and  completeness  had  to  be  maintained  and  defended. 

Practically  Paul  seems  to  have  sought  to  answer  the  question 
along  the  only  lines  possible.  He  founded  organizations  charged 
with  the  task  of  oversight  and  control.  He  could  not  foresee 
that  there  would  arise  out  of  this  organization  a  legalism  and 
spiritual  tyranny  as  oppressive  as  the  synagogue  ever  was,  and 

'  Gal.  2  :  1-21.  '  I  Cor.  11  :  23-29. 


86  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

vested  with  completer  political  and  judicial  powers  than  was 
ever  the  Sanhedrin.  The  ethical  systems  of  Jesus  and  Paul 
are  for  mature  minds.  Undeveloped  human  life  lends  itself  to 
tyranny,  the  weak  long  for  shifted  responsibility,  the  strong 
eagerly  grasp  the  opportunity  for  exploitation. 

Jesus  founded  no  church  and  laid  no  stress  on  any  ritual  or 
sacramentarian  system,  but  Jesus  was  taken  from  his  followers 
before  the  movement  compelled  organization.  Paul  and  the 
apostles  were  faced  by  conditions  that  compelled  organization, 
and  the  ethical  system  of  Paul  presupposed  an  organization 
sufficiently  sanctified  and  transformed  by  vital  union  with  the 
redeeming  purpose  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  to  be  entrusted  with 
loving  fraternal  authority,  as  he  felt  he  could  himself  be  in- 
trusted with  the  paternal  authority,  an  authority  that  has  as  its 
goal  not  feeding  children  always  with  milk,  but  developing  men 
and  women  free  in  Christ  Jesus  to  do  righteousness. 

The  early  Christians,  however,  were  not  freemen,  they  were 
only  freedmen.  Paul  was  not  understood,^  and  his  words  were 
wrested  by  more  than  the  ignorant  and  unsteadfast.  To  some 
the  freedom  in  Christ  Jesus  meant,  in  spite  of  all  Paul  could  do, 
license  and  antinomianism;  to  others  his  organization  was  a 
permanent  source  of  power  not  for  the  training  of  independent 
spiritual  life,  but  for  holding  in  spiritual  subjection,  of  course 
for  their  professed  ultimate  good,  men  and  women. 

In  all  ages  multitudes  readily  seek  refuge  from  distracting  but 
educative  questioning  in  the  dogmatisms  of  priestly  and  legal 
systems.  Paul  himself  had  sought  peace  in  such  surrender  to  a 
hierarchy.  It  was  the  last  thing  his  spirit  would  have  desired 
to  establish  again  another  hierarchy  as  exacting.  Yet  that  is 
exactly  what  happened.  In  the  system  of  Paul  are  the  germs  of 
all  that  came  after.  For  weal  or  woe  an  organization  sprang  up 
that  would  have  been  an  historic  impossibility  without  his 
activity,  which  changed  the  dynamic  into  status,  and  gave  to  the 
world  the  hierarchy  whose  ethical  systems  it  will  become  later 
our  task  to  take  up. 

«  II  Pet.  3  :  i6. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  87 

III.   THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  JOHANNINE  INTERPRETATION  OF  JESUS 

As  time  pa'ssed  the  Jewish-Christian  danger  of  narrowness 
and  legahsm  had  seemingly  been  overcome.  Paul's  ministry 
was  no  longer  doubted,  and  the  tragic  fate  of  Jerusalem  finally 
handed  the  hegemony  of  the  Christian  organization  over  to  the 
Gentile  section.  At  the  same  time  the  Jewish  world  was  still 
the  door  through  which  Christianity  was  passing  into  the  world's 
history,  although  it  was  now  the  Hellenized  cosmopolitan 
Judaism  which  was  scattered  over  the  whole  world,  but  which 
we  know  best  through  Philo  and  his  following  in  Alexandria.^ 
And  now  the  danger  was  a  complicated  one.  Redemption 
was  the  theme  of  this  religious  view  of  the  world  against  which, 
perhaps  rather  instinctively  than  with  full  consciousness  of  what 
it  was,  Paul  and  John  protest.  This  redemption  from  darkness, 
error,  and  sin  was  thought  of  by  the  various  sects  and  mysteries 
as  essentially  freedom  from  the  body,  and  this  freedom,  it  was 
taught,  could  be  gained  by  initiation  into  various  cults  and  by 
learning  mystic  formulas  in  connection  with  equally  mystic 
rites.  Even  Judaism  began  to  identify  "wisdom"  with  these 
formulae,  and  to  interpret  its  own  primitive  ceremonial  in  terms 
of  the  various  astronomical  and  vegetal  cycles  which  gave  char- 
acter to  these  oriental  sects. ^ 

Even  Paul's  own  teaching  of  the  risen  Christ,  known  hence- 
forth not  after  the  fiesh,^  seemed  to  give  a  common  standing- 

LiTERATURE. — The  best  of  the  large  literature  is  collected  by  Schmiedel, 
P.  W.,  in  Cheyne's  "Encyclopaedia  Biblica,"  and  by  Reynolds,  H.  R.,  in 
Hastings's  "Bible  Dictionary";  cf.  also  Sanday,  "Authorship  and  Historii 
Characters  of  the  Fourth  Gospel";  New  York,  1905. — Holtzmann,  H.  J.: 
"Johannes-Evangelium,"  in  his  "Hand-Commentar  zum  N.  T.,"  1890,  and 
Bacon,  B.  W.:  "The  Fourth  Gospel  in  Research  and  Debate,"  1910.  The 
more  recent  discussions  are  dealt  with  in  the  " Theologische  Rundschau"  for 
January,  1910. 

*  Schurer,  E.:  "Geschichte  des  judischen  Volkes,"  3d  ed.,  vol.  I,  pp.  1S7- 
190;   vol.  II,  pp.  21-67  and  72-175;  also  English  translation. 

2  One  of  the  best  introductions  to  this  world  of  religious  thought  and  feeling  is 
the  work  already  mentioned,  Cumont's  "Les  Religions  Orientales  dans  le  Pag- 
anisme  Romain,"  Paris,   1906.  ^  Kara  aapKo.  II  Cor.  5  :  16. 


88  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

ground.  The  historical  Jesus  could  be  thrust  aside  and  a 
divine  light-giving  principle  placed  in  the  foreground  and 
identified  with  the  risen  and  mystic  indwelling  Christ  of  the 
Pauline  Christianity.  Yet  neither  Paul  nor  John  contemplated 
such  a  thing,  and  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  one  long  protest  against 
this  very  process.  This  oriental  intrusion  was  almost  imme- 
diate. Gnostic  Judaism  was  contemporary  with  Jesus  and  Paul, 
and  even  Paul  had  to  guard  his  teaching  from  Gnostic  distortion. 

The  Fourth  Gospel  is  a  brave  protest  against  an  unethical 
and  essentially  irreligious  explanation  of  Jesus  as  a  magic  ap- 
pearance that  was  not  really  human  because  humanity  as  flesh 
was  evil.  Jesus,  he  insists,  was  actually  human,  and  he  calls 
the  witnesses  from  friend  and  foe  to  attest  the  reality  of  the  man 
Jesus  and  to  prove  his  earthly  life.  He  also  wishes  to  demon- 
strate that  this  historic  figure  is  identical  with  the  divine  Person 
of  the  Pauline  thought.  The  Johannine  literature  is  more 
directly  Christological  than  even  Paul.  The  ethics  is  not  so 
systematically  developed,  but  a  religious  ethics  is  the  central 
interest.  The  same  fundamentally  Jewish  world  of  thought  is 
at  all  points  apparent.  Ethics  is  in  the  last  analysis  the  essential 
relement  in  the  religious  life,  and  in  the  foreground  is  Paul's 
doctrine  of  the  freedom  from  death  and  sin  and  the  victory  over 
the  grave  by  love. 

From  the  opening  hymn  to  the  final  scene  after  the  resur- 
rection, the  Fourth  Gospel  is  one  long  protest  against  the  resolv- 
ing the  historic  Christian  experience  of  God  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ  into  a  vague  metaphysics  and  a  magic  sacramental 
mystery.* 

For  this  reason  the  Gospel  summons  the  witnesses  one  after 
another  not  only  to  attest  the  historical  character  of  Jesus,  as 
over  against  Doceticism,  but  also  that  they  may  bear  witness  to 
what  Jesus  meant  for  them.  It  is  Jesus  in  the  actual  flesh  who 
has  miracle-working  power  and  can  raise  the  dead  or  turn  water 

'  The  treatment  of  baptism  and  the  omission  of  the  sacrament  feast  are  per- 
haps noteworthy  protests  against  the  substitution  of  sacramental  magic  for 
ethical  and  religious  life  in  the  Hellenic  and  oriental  mystery-worship. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  89 

into  wine.  It  is  he  that  has  power  to  lay  down  his  life  and  to 
take  it  up  again.* 

The  surest  tests  of  these  oriental  pagan  fellowships  was 
orthodox  repetition  of  theological  formulte  and  the  right  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacramental  mysteries.  John  felt  sure  that 
only  those  who  willed  to  do  the  will  of  the  Father  would  even 
know  of  the  knowledge  ^  or  teaching.  The  essentially  unethical 
magic  of  sacred  places  common  to  all  primitive  paganism,  but 
elaborated  by  these  oriental  sects,  the  Fourth  Gospel  attacks  in 
Jesus'  talk  with  the  Samaritan  woman.^ 

The  way  to  redemption  is  not  magic  or  formulas,  but  obedience 
to  the  Father's  will  as  Jesus  obeyed  his  Father.^  According  to 
the  Fourth  Gospel  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  very  simple,  and  all 
the  speculative  elaboration  of  the  oriental  cult  was  simply  ob- 
structive.* For  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  actual  ethical  experience 
of  overcoming  the  world  and  sin  is  bound  up,  not  with  some 
vague,  transcendental  Logos-principle,  but  with  the  actual  in- 
carnation of  God  in  an  actual  human  being.  The  chief  office 
of  the  Christian  is  as  a  witness  to  this  ethically  transforming 
power.® 

There  are  those  who  cannot  believe  because  they  are  of  the 
world  and  the  world  loves  its  own,  but  hates  the  Father,^  and 
to  them  the  exhibition  of  God  is  only  to  their  condemnation, 
seeing  but  not  believing  the  "works."  ^  Of  course  there  is  the 
mystery  of  the  pre-existent  divine  life  becoming  flesh,  but  this 
is  attested  by  the  signs  and  wonders,  and  "the  witness"  of 
those  who  beheld  his  glory. 

The  faith  is  thus  based  upon  the  impression  Jesus  made  upon 
his  generation,  for  many  believed  him  who  were  afraid  to  say  so,^ 
and  upon  the  words  and  works  Jesus  did  among  men.  And 
all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  are  successively  described  as 
coming  under  this  influence  and  accepting  the  claims  of  the 

*  John  II  :  1-16;  2  :  i-ii;  lo  :  i8.  '  John  7  :  17. 

•  John  4  :  20-25.         *  John  17  and  15.  '  John  3:12. 
•John  14  :  25-30;  21  :  15-18;  I  John  i  :  5-2  :  6;  and  many  passages. 

'  John  IS  :  18-23.        °  John  15  :  24.  »  John  12  :  42, 


90  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Messianic  messenger:  John  the  Baptist,  Philip  and  Nathanael, 
Andrew  and  Peter,  the  Ruler  of  a  wedding  feast,  Nicodemus,  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  the  nobleman  of  Capernaum,  and  so  on. 
The  content  of  righteousness  is  the  loving  acceptance  of  this 
manifestation  of  God's  love  as  seen  in  the  historic  Jesus,  and 
the  confession  not  with  the  lips  only,  but  in  loyal  surrender  to 
him  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  is  the  test  of  discipleship.^ 

Without  doubt  we  have  here  a  serious  transposition  of  em- 
phasis. Orthodoxy  rather  than  a  right  attitude  of  the  heart 
toward  the  purpose  of  God  is  made  the  standard.  As  so  often 
happens  in  trying  to  bar  out  the  loose  intellectualism  of  vague 
Neoplatonism  and  Jewish  Gnosticism,  the  way  is  prepared  for 
the  substitution  of  formulae  for  life.  For  our  author  it  was 
almost  unthinkable  that  any  one  should  sincerely  repeat  the  now 
slowly  gathering  catchwords  of  the  young  ecclesiasticism,  and 
not  be  devoted,  as  was  the  author  himself,  to  those  ethical  ideals 
with  which  he  had  had  communion  in  sharing  the  Kingdom 
purpose  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  ethics  of  the  Johannine  literature  is  contained  largely  in 
the  first  letter.  The  criterion  for  the  Christian  life  assumes  a 
double  aspect.  For  the  author  they  must  be  held  together. 
He  who  believes  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  is  begotten  of  God,  and 
whosoever  loveth  him  that  begat  lovcth  him  also  that  is  begotten 
of  him.^  The  ethics  flows  from  this  "belief,"  but  this  belief  is 
more  than  an  intellectual  perception,  it  is  the  verdict  of  the 
heart.^  At  the  same  time  the  formula?  begin  to  have  a  place 
which  Jesus  never  gave  them  and  which  Paul  never  asserted.* 
However,  love  is  still  an  essential  element  of  any  true  "  belief,"  for 
if  we  cannot  love  our  brother  whom  we  have  seen,  we  cannot 
love  God  whom  we  have  not  seen,^  and  out  of  this  fountain  of 
love  flow  all  the  real  elements  of  good  conduct.* 

Ethics  consists  in  overcoming  the  world  by  faith  ^  and  thus 
possessing  here  and  now  eternal  life.*    The  man  begotten  of 

'  I  John  2  :  23.  •'  I  John  5:1.  '1  John  3  :  19-24. 

«  I  John  4:  1-6.         'I  John  4:  20.         « I  John  3  :  3-12. 
M  John  5  :  4-5.         '  I  John  5:11. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  91 

God  cannot  sin,  and  the  evil  one  toucheth  him  not.'  Yet  the 
point  of  view  is  not  clear,  for  directions  are  given  for  dealing  with 
the  sinning  brother,  who  sins  "not  unto  death."  For  in  this 
letter  we  have  also  that  fateful  beginning  of  a  classification  of 
sins  into  venial  and  mortal.^ 

If  we  read  the  literature  of  the  early  church  in  the  light  of 
other  young  enthusiasms  we  can  understand  this  complete 
identification  of  opinion  with  conduct.  It  was  hard  for  any 
Christian  teacher  to  understand  how  we  could  suffer  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ,  repeat  the  catchwords  of  the  following,  and  not 
also  share  the  ethical  enthusiasm  which  lent  real  value  to  these 
phrases.  Either  test  was  sufficient  for  establishing  the  good-will 
of  a  disciple,  either  his  orthodoxy  or  his  conduct,  because  these 
could  not  be  thought  of  as  really  separated.  Exactly  the  same 
point  of  view  appears  in  the  time  of  the  Reformation  or  to-day 
in  the  Socialist  party.  """^ 

The  Johannine  literature  is  aimed  evidently  at  the  beginnings 
of  that  reinterpretation  of  Jesus  in  the  phrases,  rites,  and  mys- 
teries of  the  popular  pagan  cults  round  about.  In  this  reinter- 
pretation the  catchwords  of  a  Judaistic  Gnosticism  and  a 
Hellenic  syncretism  were  given  a  Christian  sense,  and  the 
historic  Jesus  was  explained  away  in  eternal  emanations,  and 
in  the  identification  with  a  creative  Logos  was  made  really  a 
tcrtium  quid  between  man  and  God,  and  all  significance  for 
human  life  was  in  danger  of  being  lost  in  vague  and  unethical 
Gnostic  speculation.  Hence  it  is  almost  painful  to  find  attri- 
buted to  the  simple-hearted  Johannine  author  opinions  he  hardly 
understood,  but  so  far  as  he  did  understand  them  desperately 
fought.^ 

If  any  one  had  asked  the  author  of  the  first  letter  what  he 
meant  by  the  expression  "greater  is  he  that  is  in  you,"*  can 
any  one  doubt  that  his  reply  would  be  that  of  the  Old  Testament 

'  I  John  5  :  18.  =  I  John  5  :  16-17. 

'  Vide  Ziegler's  treatment,  pp.  105-114,  '  Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik," 
1892. 

*  " fiel^wp  iffriv  6  iv  vfjiiv^"  I  John  4  :  4. 


92  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

and  not  of  Greek  metaphysics  ?  that  is  to  say,  the  union  is  ethical, 
one  of  love  and  purpose,  one  of  sonship  and  parentage,  not  one 
of  metaphysical  unity  which  he  would  neither  deny  nor  affirm 
because  he  was  no  more  interested  in  it  than  many  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  readers  of  these  pages  will  be. 

The  heart  and  life  of  the  Johannine  author's  faith  was  that  in 
the  historic  Jesus  God  had  become  manifest  to  the  world  as 
forgiving,  redeeming  love,  and  that  all  who  had  faith  to  accept 
this  appearance  of  God  in  human  life  as  the  Messiah  would 
have  worked  in  them  the  new  birth  and  in  union  with  the  risen 
Christ  would  serve  God  in  love  and  holiness. 

One  thing  more  remains  to  be  remembered.  The  ethics  of 
both  Paul  and  John  were  profoundly  religious,  they  were  an 
impartation  from  above  or  rather  the  outcome  of  an  impartation. 
The  spirit  of  God  came  as  a  dynamic  force  into  the  human  life,* 
and  thus  life  was  sharply  divided  between  those  living  the  life 
of  God,  of  love  and  righteousness;  and  the  life  of  Satan,  of  hate, 
the  world,  and  unrighteousness.  The  "natural  virtues"  were 
for  the  early  Christian  enthusiasts,  as  they  have  been  to  religious 
enthusiasm  in  all  ages,  but  "glittering  vices."  There  might  be 
"sons  of  perdition"  among  the  disciples,'  but  sooner  or  later, 
either  in  doctrine  or  conduct  or  both,  they  would  be  revealed 
and  judgment  meted  out  to  them.  To  import  into  the  Johan- 
nine literature,  with  its  simple  religious  view  of  the  world,  ethical, 
philosophical,  and  metaphysical  subtleties  born  of  the  Grecian 
schools  is  to  misunderstand  its  message  in  all  the  strength  and 
weakness  of  its  religious  enthusiasm  born  of  contact  with  a  great 
religious  manifestation. 

Note. — The  distinctly  Jewish  character  of  John's  Gospel 
appears  in  the  supremacy  of  God  as  Creator  of  all  things  (i  :  3). 
The  Jews  were  "God's  own"  (i  :  11;  cj.  also  i  :3i),  although 
he  does  not  use  the  Pauline  expression  "sons  of  God"  {mol  tov 
6eov),  and  perhaps  softens  it  to  "children  of  God"  {rmva  deov) 
(r  :  12),  yet  this  is  in  obedience  to  strong  Jewish  feeling  of  God's 

'  John  3  :  3-12.  'John  17  :  12. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  93 

supremacy  and  separateness.  Jesus  is  the  "only  begotten" 
{fiovoy€vri<;),  we  are  only  "children."  No  writer,  not  even 
Matthew,  is  more  insistent  on  the  fulfilment  of  Scripture  (i  :  23; 
2  :i7;  5  :45;  7  142;  12  :  15,  3M0;  13  :  18;  15  125;  17  :  12; 
19:24;  19  :  28,  36-37;  20:9),  or  more  careful  to  identify 
Jesus  with  the  Jewish  hope  of  the  Messiah  (i  :  41-45;  4  :  22-26), 
or  dwells  more  on  the  exclusive  claims  of  Judaism  (4:22;  7  :  19; 
8  :  S3)'  Even  a  high-priest  must  prophesy  the  truth  (11  :  51), 
though  unwittingly. 

IV.      THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  OTHER  CANONICAL  WRITINGS 

The  Book  0}  Hebrews.— The  modern  student  finds  it  hard  to 
understand  how  any  one  could  ever  have  assigned  this  letter  to 
Paul.  The  style,  aim,  and  argument  separate  it  entirely  from 
the  literature  we  identify  with  him.  The  question  of  the  circle 
to  which  the  letter  is  addressed  is  not  so  easy.^  The  prevalent 
opinion  among  recent  critics  that  it  is  addressed  to  the  Gentile 
Christians  at  Rome  presents  many  difficulties,  and  it  seems 
almost  easier  to  fall  back  on  the  older  opinion  that  it  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  free,  allegorizing,  Hellenistic  Judaism,  although 
not  especially  dealing  with  Gnosticism. 

The  special  purpose  is  to  show  how  the  continuity  of  religious 
history  is  to  be  maintained  by  the  right  understanding  of  the 
place  of  faith,  and  the  letter  reflects  a  time  when  the  Pauline 
conception  of  faith  had  been  accepted  although  by  no  means 
fully  understood. 

Although  the  letter  closes  with  ethical  instructions  (13  :  1-17), 
and  is  religious-ethical  throughout,  its  main  emphasis  is  a  work- 
ing philosophy  of  religion;  a  brave  attempt  to  demonstrate  that 
all  the  spiritual  values  of  Judaism  had  been  conserved  in  the 

'  Cf.  Zahn,  Theod.:  "Einleitung  in  das  Neue  Testament,"  2  vols.,  2d  ed., 
Leipsic,  1900,  vol.  II,  p.  iii  (English  translation  by  M.  W.  Jacobus,  Edin- 
burgh, 1909,  3  vols,  vol.  II,  pp.  293-366);  Harnack,  A.,  in  "Die  Zeitschrift 
fiir  die  neutestamentliche  Wissenschaft,"  1900,  p.  16;  and  Holtzmann,  H.  J.: 
"Einleitung  in  das  N.  T.,"  3d  ed.,  1892,  pp.  292-309,  where  literature  is  given 
very  fully;  Vincent,  M.  R.:  Word  Studies  in  the  N.  T.,  Scribner's,  1900,  vol. 
IV,  pp.  361-585. 


94  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Christian  group.  For  the  author  faith  is  the  assurance  of  things 
hoped  for/  and  this  faith  joins  all  the  heroes  of  religious  history 
into  a  great  cloud  of  testifiers  while  the  runner  in  the  race  leaps 
forward  for  the  prize  of  high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus.^  The 
recurring  sins  of  fornication,  money-loving,  the  running  after 
"strange  teachings,"  and  injunctions  about  meats  are  all  con- 
demned, and  the  virtues  of  hospitality,  visiting  prisoners,  obedi- 
ence to  rulers,  and  offering  sacrifices  of  praise  are  commended.^ 

The  letter  is  at  one  with  the  Johannine  literature  in  the  em- 
phasis upon  the  oneness  of  the  suffering  historic  Jesus  and  the 
risen  Christ,  and  the  making  perfection  in  a  future  glory  the  end 
of  the  Christian  life.  The  book  deals  with  the  question  of 
angels  as  in  a  sense  rivals  of  Jesus  Christ,*  thus  pointing  to  an 
abuse  that  allegorizing  Judaism  (Philo)  was  likely  to  foster,  but 
the  letter  can  hardly  be  classed  as  an  anti-gnostic  document. 

One  of  the  c^uestions  raised  has  ethical  significance,  although 
generally  treated  as  a  theological  topic,  namely,  the  significance 
of  sacrifice.  And  the  answer  of  the  letter  is  vague  and  unsatis- 
factory. The  real  interest  is  in  establishing  the  priestly  char- 
acter of  Jesus  rather  than  in  using  his  death  as  symbolic  of 
sacrifice.  At  this  point  the  contacts  with  the  Pauline  and 
Johannine  conceptions  are  strikingly  few. 

The  covenant  character  of  the  sacrifice  is  brought  out,^  but 
the  letter  does  not  stop  here;  Jesus  is  at  once  sacrifice  and 
priest.  True  it  is  that  Jewish  sacrifices  cannot  take  away  sin,® 
but  the  one  sacrifice  can  and  does.'  How,  the  letter  does  not 
explain.  It  is  an  a^eai<;  and  the  al^la  t^?  Biad7]ic7]<;  makes 
the  believer  holy,  and  is  the  way  into  a  living  communion  with 
God.*  There  is  almost  the  contempt  for  the  blood  of  bulls  and 
goats  characteristic  of  the  eighth  century  prophets,"  at  the  same 
time  they  are  done  awa"  with  by  fulfilment. 

»Heb.  ii:i.  »  Heb.  ii  :  4-12  :  4.  •  Heb.  13  :  1-17. 

♦Heb.  1:1-2:  12;  cf.  Col.  2  :  18. 

'■  Hub.  6  :  13-20;    7  :  iS-25;    8  :  6-13;    9:1;     ii-iS. 

«  Heb.  10  :  1-4.  '  Heb.  10  :  14. 

"  llch.  10  :  iS  and  10  :  28-31.  *  Heb.  10  :  1-5. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  95 

Sacrifice  has  always  carried  with  it  some  taint  of  the  immoral 
conception  of  God  as  a  demon  to  be  feared  and  bribed  into  good 
nature.  At  the  same  time  the  significance  of  sacrifice  as  a 
sharing  of  the  meal  with  God  and  thus  inviting  him  to  fellow- 
ship and  communion  with  the  tribal  group  is  almost  equally 
potent,  and  both  of  these  conceptions  color  the  somewhat  hazy 
view  of  Hebrews.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  linked  with  the  turning 
away  of  God's  vengeance/  and  on  the  other,  as  we  have  seen, 
it  is  the  signal  evidence  of  covenant  relations  with  God.  Thus 
sacrifice  in  some  way  cleans  the  conscience  and  prepares  a  way 
to  God,  but  it  is  the  living  sacrifice  of  Jesus  and  not  the  sacrifices 
of  beasts.  This  ethical  interpretation  of  sacrifice  marks  an 
advance,  although  it  had  its  distinct  perils  for  the  thought  of  the 
future  church.^ 

James  and  The  Revelation  to  John.— Two  canonical  books 
reflect  almost  nothing  of  Christianity  as  Paul  and  the  author 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel  understood  it.  The  contents  of  the 
Apocalypse  and  the  letters  of  James  have  as  their  common  in- 
terpretation of  the  Christian  message  the  near  coming  of  the 
Messiah,  the  formation  of  a  community  to  await  that  coming  in  a 
spirit  of  loving  brotherhood  and  good  works.  James  ^  may  not 
be,  probably,  indeed,  is  not,  a  polemic  against  Paul,  but  it  is 
directed  against  the  outcome  of  Paul's  teaching  in  the  minds 
of  some  of  his  followers.  The  legal  Jewish  character  of  both 
books  is  quite  beyond  dispute,  and  even  if  we  allow  for  the  fact 
that  no  author  is  likely  to  put  his  whole  theology  into  one  letter, 
yet  Luther's  judgment  on  both  books  is  not  far  wrong.  Luther 
called  James  a  "strawy  letter"  ("eine  recht  stroherne"),  mean- 
ing dry  and  juiceless  from  the  evangelical  point  of  view. 

The  ethics  of  James  is  a  noble  and  forceful  statement  of  the 
loftiest  morality  of  the  Old  Testament,  combined  with  the  old 
democracy  of  the  Holy  Community,  in  its  best  estate.     It  is  filled 

'  Heb.  10  :  26-31. 

~  Cf.  Professor  George  F.  Moore's  article  on  "Sacrifice,"  in  Cheyne's  "Ency- 
clopaedia Biblica"  for  full  exposition  of  the  Biblical  material. 
'■'  2  :  14-26,  particularly. 


96  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

with  fine  practical  common  sense  and  clear  insight  into  the 
weaknesses  that  began  to  show  themselves  in  the  Christian  com- 
munity, such  as  excessive  respect  for  any  exceptionally  rich  man 
who  "patronized"  the  Christian  community/  What  that  temp- 
tation was  and  is  every  observer  knows.  The  Jewish  dictum 
that  he  who  offends  against  the  law  in  one  point  is  guilty  of  all,^ 
is  in  James  (2  :  10)  used  to  very  different  purpose  from  that  to 
which  Paul  puts  it.  For  Paul  it  was  the  condemnation  of  the 
whole  law.  For  James  as  for  Matthew  (5  :  19)  it  was  an  in- 
centive to  still  greater  legal  care  over  conduct.  James,  however, 
had  no  quarrel  with  the  law  of  liberty,^  which  had  become,  no 
doubt,  a  catchword  of  the  Pauline  Christianity,  but  with  the 
abuses  arising  from  identifying  license  with  liberty. 

But  to  combat  this  he  goes  about  his  task  very  differently  and 
distinctly  on  a  lower  level  than  either  Paul  or  John.  He  makes 
no  such  application  of  the  "inborn  word  which  is  able  to  save,"  * 
as  Paul  makes  of  it  in  Romans.  '  Christianity  is  with  him  an 
ethical  ideal  to  be  attained;  with  Paul  it  was  a  dynamic  for  at- 
taining the  ideal.  The  letter  of  James  would  no  more  set  a 
world  on  fire  with  new  ethical  enthusiasm  than  did  Seneca's 
"Epistolae  Morales."  The  letter  shows  no  such  grasp  of  the 
power  of  the  forgiven  life  as  is  reflected  in  the  Johannine  mes- 
sage or  the  letter  to  Hebrews, 

The  same  is  true  of  the  Revelation  of  John.  All  that  im- 
mediately concerns  us  are  the  ethical  exhortations  of  the  first 
chapters  ^  and  the  closing  beautiful  poems  of  the  consummation.® 
All  of  these  move  on  the  highest  plane  of  Old  Testament 
enthusiasm.  The  exhortations  are  fine  reproductions  of  eighth 
and  seventh  century  prophecy,  and  the  consummation  is  a  noble 
climax  to  Messianic  dreaming;  but  there  is  nothing  distinctively 
Christian  in  the  whole  book  as  Paul  and  John  understood 
Christianity.  It  was  Christian  as,  no  doubt,  many  understood 
Jesus,  and  although  Paul  may  not  be  deliberately  ignored  in 
21  :  14,  his  omission  from  the  apostolic  number  is  significant. 

•  James  2  :  1-13.  *  Gal.  3  :  10.  '  James  i  :  25. 

*  James  1:21.  *  Chapters  2  and  3.         *  Chapters  20  to  33. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  97 

The  God  of  the  Revelation  is  the  old  conception  of  the  war 
god  of  Sinai,  who  comes  down  in  wrath  and  power  to  restore 
the  chosen  Holy  Community  to  a  place  of  prosperity,  and  to  re- 
ward all  its  sufferings  with  appropriate  bliss. 

This  Holy  Community  is  indeed  no  longer  Jewish,  but  the 
persecuted  Christian  sect  that  has  been  called  of  God,  because  it 
saw  in  Jesus  the  Messianic  hope  and  looked  for  his  speedy 
coming  in  power,  but  without  any  serious  change  in  its  thought 
of  God,  because  of  the  "Lamb  of  God,"  or  any  profound  im- 
pression of  the  real  force  that  was  to  transform  human  life  and 
make  the  Messianic  Kingdom  possible.  It  moves  between  the 
poles  of  repentance  and  ultimate  victory,  along  the  path  of 
suffering,  in  true  Jewish  fashion,  the  only  real  contact  with 
Christ  Jesus  being  the  fact  that  he  is  the  suffering  Lamb  already 
entered  upon  the  victory  and  coming  in  power  to  share  it  with 
all  who  name  his  name  and  do  his  works. 

The  Ecclesiastical  Literature. — However  little  Jesus  may  have 
formally  organized  a  following  it  was  inevitable  that  a  fellowship 
should  gather  about  his  memory.  The  faith  in  his  resurrection 
became  the  foundation-stone  of  the  new  organization.  Its 
triumphant  proclamation  of  a  risen  Christ  called  many  to  the 
new  life  for  which  Jesus  stood,  and  the  new  hope  of  his  reap- 
pearance in  glory,  which  stirred  the  hearts  of  his  disciples,  and 
made  them  ready  to  face  danger  and  death  in  the  name  of  their 
risen  Master,  The  task  of  separating  the  materials  that  enter 
into  the  book  of  Acts  may  be  left  to  the  experts;  we  can  only 
note  that  the  simple  Baur-Tubingen  explanation  of  a  deliberate 
attempt  to  harmonize  two  distinct  conceptions  does  not  explain 
the  complicated  phenomena  by  which  the  student  is  confronted 
in  the  New  Testament  literature.  There  were  not  simply  two, 
there  were  many  diverse  tendencies,  as  we  can  see  in  the  frequent 
rebukes  of  sectarian  strife  and  by  the  way  the  church  at  Corinth 
was  torn  by  faction. 

More  and  more  a  strong  organization  arose  in  the  minds  of 
the  leaders  as  a  necessity  for  holding  together  the  various 
elements.     We  have  seen  how  against  his  great  fundamental 


98  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

principle  Paul  found  it  necessary  to  assert  himself  as  an  outward 
authority,  and  to  call  upon  the  organization  to  assert  its  authority 
for  the  same  purpose. 

Whatever  may  have  been  Paul's  own  theoretical  conceptions 
about  his  fallibility/  he,  like  all  great  leaders,  had  no  doubt  at 
all  about  his  being  able  to  discern  between  the  essential  and  non- 
essential elements  in  his  teaching,  and  had  no  doubt  whatsoever 
about  the  infallible  character  of  his  teaching  when  dealing  with 
the  essential  things  of  faith.^  As,  however,  the  great  leaders 
died  or  were  removed  from  the  organizations  they  founded,  the 
note  of  triumphant  certainty  could  not  be  transferred  to  another 
generation,  and  an  organization  and  a  tradition  began  to  take  the 
place  of  the  living  voice,  and  memories  of  the  "words  of  the 
Lord"  or  of  directions  given  by  the  great  apostles  gradually 
became  the  rule  of  the  organization's  life. 

The  formation  of  a  Christian  morality  became  the  immediate 
concern  of  the  church.  It  was  enormously  important  that  the 
persecutions  should  be  for  righteousness'  sake,^  and  that  the 
persecutors  should  have  no  excuse  for  their  oppression.  And 
it  was  all-important  that  when  Jesus  came  again  he  should  find 
a  holy  community  waiting  for  him.^  For  all  the  leaders,  Paul, 
the  authors  of  I  Peter,  I  Timothy,  and  Matthew,  obedience  to 
even  oppressive  rulers  within  the  limits  of  loyalty  to  God  was 
a  most  important  duty.  Only  such  innocent  suffering  bound 
life  up  with  the  life. and  sufferings  of  Jesus;  and  the  reality  of 
the  religious  enthusiasm  was  alike  for  Paul,  John,  and  James 
attested  by  "fruit  unto  holiness." 

The  new  church  was  born  of  a  divine  longing  for  vital  justice, 
a  justice  neither  ritual  nor  philosophy  had  attained  to,  but 
which  faith  born  of  contact  with  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  gave 
assurance  of;  and  the  new  fellowship  was  called  together  to 
realize  that  justice  and  give  to  the  world  the  Holy  Community. 
Paul  addresses  himself  to  the  "saints"  or  "holy  ones."  * 

It  was  inevitable,  therefore,  that  there  should  grow  up  a  litera- 

'  As  in  I  Cor.  7  :  25.  ^  q^j    2:11.  3 1  Pet.  4  :  15-19. 

*  Rev.  2  :  1-3  :  22.  *  Rom.  16  :  15. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  99 

ture  based  on  the  teachings  of  the  great  leaders,  and  often  in 
their  name,  in  which  this  organization  was  now  a  most  conspicu- 
ous factor. 

The  first  letter  to  Timothy  in  the  name  of  Paul,  but  hardly 
likely  to  be  as  a  whole  or  even  in  part  from  his  pen,  reflects 
the  special  moralities  growing  up  for  the  church  and  its  officers. 
Sound  doctrine  is  as  important  as  correct  life,  and  the  officers 
must  be  most  especially  beyond  ethical  reproach.^  The  begin- 
nings of  a  false  and  legal  asceticism  are  boldly  condemned.^  The 
freedom  of  the  gifts  is  now  limited  by  the  ecclesiastical  arrange- 
ments.^ Arrangements  are  already  made  for  the  support  of  those 
giving  themselves  to  ruling  well.^  The  responsible  leaders  are 
protected  by  special  arrangements.^ 

When  we  ask  ourselves  what  did  "sound  doctrine"  mean  to 
the  average  ignorant  early  Christian,  it  is  impossible  to  believe 
that  the  things  that  interest  us  as  theologians  had  then  any  more 
than  now  a  real  place  in  the  lives  of  the  religious  following. 
"Sound  doctrine"  meant,  however,  unity  for  a  fighting  organ- 
ization. Early  the  little  Christian  church  meant  to  gather  from 
the  whole  world  a  "holy  community"  to  prepare  for  the  coming 
Utopia  and  to  receive  the  Master  when  he  came.^  This  organ- 
ization had  to  defend  itself  and  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that 
was  held  so  firmly.^  It  was  quite  as  important  that  all  should 
give  the  same  reason  as  that  that  reason  should  be  right.  The 
unity  of  a  fighting  propaganda  was  the  real  reason  for  the 
gradual  formation  of  an  ecclesiastical  dogma  ^  in  which  an  ethics 
was,  of  course,  included.  The  traditions  had  to  be  organized, 
and  not  Paul  and  Peter  only;  but  the  words  of  Jesus,  the  teach- 
ings of  James  and  John,  the  traditional  interpretations  of  the 
Psalms,  and  the  usages  of  the  early  communities,  had  all  to  be 
woven  into  a  unity  and  a  self-consistent  "teaching."  The 
real  interest  was  not  theoretical,  but  practical,  a  platform  on 

'  I  Tim.  3  :  1-13.  ^  I  Tim.  4  :  1-5.  »  j  Tim.  4  :  14. 

*■  I  Tim.  5  :  17-18.  » I  Tim.  5  :  19.  «  Matt.  28  :  19. 

■>  I  Pet.  3  :  15. 

*  Cf.  art.,  "Socialism  as  a  Rival  of  Organized  Christianity,"  "North  Ameri- 
can Review,"  June,  1904. 


loo  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

which  to  stand  and  a  definite  picture  of  the  future  hope.  In  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew  we  have  also  the  beginnings  of  this  ecclesiasti- 
cal programme.  The  words  of  Jesus  are  taken  out  of  their 
historical  setting  and  arranged  as  an  ethics  and  constitution  for 
the  coming  Kingdom  of  Justice/  and  the  law  of  the  church 
begins  to  be  based  definitely  upon  the  personal  authority  of  the 
apostles.^ 

In  Paul  the  one  intense  longing  was  for  personal  holiness; 
to  the  vast  mass  to  whom  he  addressed  himself  the  longing  was 
not  so  much  for  their  own  personal  holiness  as  for  a  world 
without  the  wrongs  and  hardships  other  people's  unholiness 
brought  upon  them.  For  Jesus  and  Paul,  as  for  John  also, 
righteousness  and  peace  with  God  were  eternal  life.  For  the 
vast  mass  of  Christians  righteousness  was  a  condition  on  which 
an  eternal  life  could  be  secured,  and  eternal  life  was  the  new  era 
of  social  justice,  when  the  possessionless  working  class  would 
enter  upon  its  rights,  joys,  and  rewards.  The  Gospel  of  Luke  is 
full  of  this  hope  and  longing  of  the  oppressed  proletariat.' 
Hence  steadily  the  ethics  of  ecclesiasticism  becomes  a  law  to  be 
imposed  on  others,  rather  than,  as  in  the  beginning,  an  autono- 
mous regulation  of  each  life  by  a  common  loving  enthusiasm. 

In  the  ecclesiastical  portions  of  Matthew  and  Luke,  and  in  I 
and  II  Timothy,  I  and  II  Peter  (including  Jude),  and  in  the  Chris- 
tian material  in  Revelation,  we  come  more  and  more  in  contact 
with  a  law-giving  organization  to  take  the  place  of  a  dynamic 
spiritual  principle.  Nor  was  it  possible  for  Paul  the  great  organ- 
izer to  overlook  this  obvious  need.  The  dynamic  spiritual  voice, 
when  it  jailed  or  grew  weak,  must  be  strengthened  or  even  sup- 
planted by  the  law-giving  organization.''  The  essential  differ- 
ence between  law  and  ethics  is  the  character  of  the  coercion. 
For  law  external  coercion  is  essential,  for  an  ethical  compulsion 
the  coercion  must  be  internal. 

»  Matt.  5,  6,  and  7.  '  Matt.  16  :  17-18. 

*Cf.  Rogge,  C:  "Der  irdische  Besitz  im  Neucn  Testament,"  1897,  and 
Cone,  Orello:  "The  Rich  and  the  Poor  in  the  New  Testament,"  New  York, 
1902. 

*I  and   II  Corinthians  and  the  Captivity  Epistles. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  loi 

True  the  early  church  had  no  force  of  a  physical  character  to 
enable  it  to  transform  its  ethics  into  law,  but  the  force  of  the 
communal  ban  ^  was  even  by  Paul  used  evidently  as  a  powerful 
external  coercion;  and  more  and  more  as  fellowship  with  the 
Christian  church  cut  a  man  off  from  other  life  and  social  contacts 
did  the  communal  ban  become  a  terrible  instrument  of  external 
coercion. 

Let,  for  instance,  in  a  manufacturing  district  in  Germany,  a 
Social  Democrat  who  has  cut  himself  off  by  his  political  opinions 
from  all  fellowship  of  an  intimate  character  save  with  his  fellow 
Social  Democrats,  fall  under  the  displeasure  of  his  group,  and  he 
has  to  choose  between  complete  isolation  or  some  kind  of  sub-. 
mission  to  his  group. 

The  splitting  up  of  the  Christian  church  into  many  followings 
has  happily  robbed  her  of  this  compulsion.  The  excommuni- 
cated Roman  Catholic  either  maintains  his  social  contacts  or 
joins  a  Protestant  body.  In  the  early  church  this  was  not  pos- 
sible. To  go  over  to  Christianity  meant  the  severing  of  the  most 
sacred  ties.^  It  was  the  strength  of  the  early  church,  as  of  early 
Methodism  in  England  or  the  Social  Democracy  in  Germany, 
that  public  ridicule  and  ofificial  and  class  hatreds  made  those 
who  were  thus  outcast  dependent  in  a  singular  degree  upon  each 
other.  The  beautiful  prayer  put  on  the  lips  of  Jesus  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel  reflects  this  exclusive  brotherhood  spirit  as  over 
against  the  "world"  which  Jesus  himself  came  to  save. 

At  the  same  time  and  for  this  very  reason  schism  was  most 
peculiarly  weakening,  for  just  as  soon  as  a  schismatic  arose  it 
was  his  intense  interest  and  purpose  to  capture  as  large  a  follow- 
ing as  possible  so  that  social  isolation  would  not  result.^  And  it 
was  peculiarly  the  interest  of  a  ban-enforcing  church  to  make 
her  penalty  as  heavy  as  possible.  The  bitterness  against  the 
schismatic  was  therefore  tenfold  greater  than  toward  the  world. 
So  Paul  does  not  forbid  social  intercourse  with  fornicators  "of  the 
world,"  but  does  forbid  it  with  any  Christian  brother  so  guilty.* 

*  I  Cor.  5  :  9-13;    II  John  10,  11;    and  John  17  :  9. 

»  Matt.  10  :  34-39-  '  ^^^^-  ^  ■  15-18.  « I  Cor.  5  :  9-13. 


I02  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Exactly  the  same  forces  and  interests  may  be  seen  at  work 
to-day  in  any  manufacturing  centre,  where  the  trades-union,  if 
fighting  for  life,  is  confronted  by  the  same  questions.  The 
whole  question  of  the  "open  shop,"  the  "scab,"  and  the  en- 
forcement of  the  boycott  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  gradual 
transformation  of  a  Pauline  ethics  into  a  moral  coercion,  and 
finally  an  ecclesiastical  legalism. 

The  enforcement  of  this  doctrinal  and  ethical  unity  became 
soon  the  enforcement  of  a  mere  external  uniformity.  Moral 
enthusiasm  does  not  admit  of  unlimited  external  coercion,  but 
does  soon  feel  the  need  of  regulation.  And  for  such  enforcement 
,  all  the  arrangements  of  church  discipline,  officers,  and  acknowl- 
edged authority  sprang  up  under  the  direction  of  the  leaders.^ 
The  Pastoral  Epistles  only  represent  a  little  more  advanced  stage 
of  the  inevitable  progression.  To  quarrel  with  this  organization 
is  to  quarrel  with  the  facts  of  human  life.  At  the  same  time  we 
must  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  truth  that,  from  the  very  inception 
of  the  early  church,  there  were  forces  at  work  changing  a 
moral  enthusiasm  into  an  organized  and  eventually  a  tyrannical 
and  immoral  ecclesiasticism. 

Moreover  the  character  of  this  authority  deserves  attention. 
The  ecclesiastical  canonical  literature  assumes  an  infallible 
leading  of  the  spirit  granted  to  the  leaders  of  the  movement. 
Paul's  apostolate  may  have  been  seriously  disputed,  but  when 
Paul  or  Apollos  or  Cephas  had  once  been  accepted  as  apostles, 
we  may  be  quite  sure  that  they  wielded  an  authority  no  one  in 
Christian  circles  dared  to  challenge.  Later  the  "  writings  "  given 
by  inspiration  took  this  place  of  undisputed  authority.  It  is 
exceedingly  unhistoric  to  try  and  import  into  the  view  of  the 
world  of  the  primitive  Christian  church  the  fine  distinctions  and 
— perhaps — justified  doubts  of  a  later  century. 

It  no  more  occurred  in  that  age  to  any  devout  worshipper  that 
his  authority  could  make  a  mistake  and  still  remain  an  authority, 
than  it  occurs  to  a  well-trained  child  that  father  and  mother  may 
be  wrong.     The  moral  judgments  of  an  ethical  genius  of  the 

'  Acts  6  :  1-6;    15  :  1-29;    Gal.  2  :  i-io;    I  Cor.  12  :  28-29,  etc. 


NEW  TESTAMENT   ETHICS  103 

first  class  like  Paul  had  for  his  hearers  and  had  for  himself  an 
absolute  character.  When  he  "felt  that  he  had  the  spirit"  he 
had  no  doubts  as  to  the  infallible  character  of  his  moral  judg- 
ment. There  were  times  and  places  when  he  wavered  or  had 
"no  commandment,"  ^  but  once  he  had  established  his  real 
apostolic  character,  as  in  his  letter  to  the  Galatians,  then  from  his 
moral  judgments  when  speaking  in  the  Spirit  he  felt  his  hearers 
could  not  safely  dissent. 

The  New  Testament  literature  moves  in  the  atmosphere  of 
these  first  great  moral  certitudes.  In  Hebrews  "  the  things  that 
were  heard"  (2  :  i),  and  in  II  Timothy,^  "the  scripture  inspired 
of  God,"  begin,  indeed,  to  mark  the  transition,  but  the  passing 
over  is  not  complete.  Indeed  it  is  never  complete.  For  practical 
purposes  John  Wesley  and  Martin  Luther  thought  themselves 
as  fully  infallible  as  did  Paul  or  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  ethical  judgment  at  its  best  and  in  its 
highest  potency  that  with  it  goes  this  sense  of  absolute  finality. 
On  the  sureness  of  that  judgment  the  moralized  man  will  stake 
earth  and  heaven,  life  here  and  hereafter  (Who  shall  separate  us  ? 
Rom.  8  :  38).  No  definition  of  scriptural  inspiration  is  given 
within  the  canonical  limits,  but  who  can  doubt  that  had  it  been 
given  it  would  satisfy  the  most  exacting  traditionalist?  And 
one  reason  why  no  definition  was  given  was  because  of  this  ex- 
ceeding sureness.  None  of  the  canonical  books  sinks  to  the 
level  of  a  discussion  of  past  ethical  authority;  in  even  the  slightest 
and  most  doubtful  contribution  there  is  the  freshness  and 
spontaneity  of  ethical  finality  on  the  basis  of  an  ethical  enthusi- 
asm that  brooked  no  useless  questioning. 

The  very  identification  of  later  writings  with  the  names  of 
the  apostles  marks  the  feeling  that  one  infallible  spirit  moved 
upon  the  early  church,  that  the  religious  and  ethical  feeling 
springing  from  this  enthusiasm  must  be  one,^  and  that  the  truth 
upon  any  point  of  conscience  was  reachable,  and  could  be  in- 
fallibly made  known.     Indeed  the  sense  that  it  had  been  made 

'  I  Cor.  7  :  25.  23:  16. 

^  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  Eph.  4  :  5. 


104  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

known  gave  power  and  vigor  to  the  proclamation  of  the  ethical 
content  that  had  its  origin  in  the  enthusiasm  and  love  awakened 
in  men's  hearts  by.  the  life  and  death  and  resurrection  of  Him 
whom  His  disciples  accepted  without  reservation  as  the  founder 
of  that  new  order  of  social  and  personal  righteousness — the  new 
Heaven  and  the  new  Earth  men  dreamed  of  amid  the  corrup- 
tions, fears,  and  oppressions  of  a  rotting  social  state. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH 

Introduction  on  the  Types  of  Controlling  Interest. — I.  The  Ethics  of  Un- 
organized Christianity:  Hermas;  The  Letter  of  Barnabas;  The 
First  Letter  of  Clement;  The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles;  The 
Letter  of  Polycarp — II.  The  Struggle  for  Individualization:  The 
formation  of  sects;  The  Ebionites;  Gnosticism;  The  Ophites; 
Valentinus;  Ptolemaeus  to  Flora;  Marcion;  Recognitions;  Homilies — 
III.  The  Intellectual  Formulation  of  Christianity:  Justin  Martyr; 
Clement  of  Alexandria;  Origen;  TertuUian — IV.  The  Ecclesiastical 
Formulation  of  Christianity:  Ignatius;  Cyprian — V.  The  Ethical 
Forces  of  Early  Christianity:  Family  Purity;  The  Economic  Brother- 
hood; Poverty;  Slavery;  Martyrdom;  Hospitality;  Social  Organiza- 
tion; Democracy;  Education. 


INTRODUCTION 

Before  the  canonical  writings  as  we  have  them  were  finally 
edited  and  accepted,  the  expectation  of  a  speedy  coming  of  Jesus 
in  person  had  begun  to  grow  weaker/  In  the  place  of  this  hope 
another  interest  was  beginning  to  exercise  its  power.  The 
ecclesiastical  group  with  its  own  organization,  aims,  and  life  was 

Literature. — The  various  editions  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers. — Migne: 
"Patrologise  Graecae"  (Greek  and  Latin);  vols.  I-II;  Paris,  1857. — Funk,  F.  X.: 
"Opera  Patrum  Apostolicorum"  (Greek and  Latin);  2  vols.;  Tubingen,  1901. — 
Lightfoot,  J.  B.:  "The  Apostolic  Fathers"  (Greek  and  English);  London,  1891; 
also  in  5  vols.,  1889-1890. — Gebhardt,  Harnack,  and  Zahn:  "Patrum  Apostoli- 
corum Opera";  Leipsic,  1876-1878;  smaller  edition,  Leipsic,  1877;  reprinted 
1894. — Hatch,  Edward:  "Organization  of  the  Early  Christian  Churches"; 
London,  1881  (Bampton  Lectures,  1880). — McGiffert,  A.  C:  "A  History  of 
Christianity  in  the  Apostolic  Age";  New  York,  1897  (International  Theological 
Library). — Ritschl,  A.:  "Die  Entstehung  der  altkatholischen  Kirche";  2d  ed.; 
1857. — Miiller,  K.:  "Kirchengeschichte";  Band  I;  Freiburg,  1892. — Moller, 
W.:  "Kirchengeschichte";  Bandl;  2ded.;  Freiburg,  1902;  English  translation  of 

'  n  Thess.  2  :  2. 
105 


io6  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

becoming  an  interest  in  itself.  It  was  not  only  being  organized 
as  a  great  propagandist  society,  but  it  fulfilled  many  functions  in 
the  great  human  life  in  which  it  was  placed.  Of  course  the 
propaganda  was  its  primary  reason  for  existence/  at  the  same 
time  hospitality  to  strangers,  the  supply  of  social  life  to  the 
lonely,  of  organized  strength  to  the  weak,  of  burial  to  the  poor 
were  all  functions  of  the  early  church.^  One  thing  was,  as  we 
have  seen  (pages  loi,  102)  most  essential.  In  the  midst  of  a 
critical  and  hostile  community  it  was  of  tremendous  importance 
to  maintain  the  outward  unity  of  the  organization.  Uniformity 
became  confused  with  unity,  and  indeed  real  unity  was  often 
seemingly  less  important  in  the  eyes  of  the  leaders  than  uni- 
formity of  conduct. 

It  became,  therefore,  wellnigh  essential  to  gain  a  lasting  and 
satisfactory  basis  for  uniformity.  The  account  in  Acts  ^  of  the 
meeting  at  Jerusalem  reveals  the  spirit  and  method  that  must 
have  animated  the  early  group. 

For  Paul  the  only  basis  for  the  church  life  consisted  in  pos- 
session by  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  possession  must,  of  course, 
result  in  a  distinct  religious-moral  type,  and  the  approach  to  this 
type  could  alone  be  a  basis  for  effective  fellowship,  which  is  the 

first  edition,  London,  1892. — Harnack,  A. :  "  Lchrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte  "; 
Freiburg,  1888-1890;  3  vols.;  English  translation  in  7  vols.,  Boston,  1895-1900. 
— Harnack,  A.:  "Die  Mission  und  Ausbreitung  des  Christentums  in  den  ersten 
drei  Jahrhunderten";  Leipsic,  1902;  second  very  much  enlarged  edition  in 
1906;  English  translation  of  the  first  edition  by  Moflatt:  "The  E.xpansion  of 
Christianity  in  the  First  Three  Centuries";  New  York,  1904- 1905;  2  vols. — 
Gass,  W.:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik";  Berlin,  1881-1887.— Ziegler, 
Theo.:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik";  Strasburg,  1892.— Bestmann, 
H.:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Sitte";  Nordhngen,  1880-1885.— Smith,  W., 
and  Cheetham,  S.:  "A  Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiquities";  1875-1880. — 
Luthardt,  C.  E.:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik."  Last  edition  two  vols, 
in  one,  1888-1893;  also  English  translation  of  the  first  vol.  of  first  edition, 
Edinburgh,  1889. 

'  Matt.  16  :  13-20;   28  :  16-20. 

^Harnack,  A.:  "Mission  und  Ausbreitung  des  Christentums,"  Book  II, 
chap.  3,  pp.  105-128,  ed.  1902.  English  translation  (1904-1905),  vol.  I,  pp. 
181-219. 

'  15  :  1-29. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      107 

holy  temple  of  the  Spirit.*  No  outward  ritual  such  as  baptism,^ 
and  no  ordinances  or  ritual  days;^  no  external  government  or 
even  intellectual  system  apart  from  this  possession  by  the  Spirit 
could  serve  for  Paul  as  a  satisfactory  basis  of  unity.  But 
although  Paul  thought  the  fruit  of  the  spirit  was  easily  judged  in 
its  results/  yet  in  point  of  fact,  even  in  his  own  day,  men  claimed 
membership  who,  though  very  far  from  the  ideal  type,  Paul 
himself  did  not  care  to  expel  from  the  society.^ 

Hence  a  basis  for  unity  was  sought  by  the  church  of  a  more 
definite  kind  than  the  enthusiasms  on  which  the  early  teachers 
so  largely  relied.  This  basis  was  found  in  various  interests,  and 
the  prevailing  emphasis  determined  the  peculiar  type. 

There  were,  roughly  speaking,  three  distinct  types  of  this  em- 
phasis made  prominently  central  in  the  struggle  for  the  uni- 
formity and  unity  of  the  fighting  organization.  In  historical 
order  we  may  see  first  the  Judaistic  and  legal  moral  ideal  in- 
sisted upon  as  the  central  and  important  thing.  Along  with 
this  moral  ideal  and  interwoven  with  it  were  certain  ceremonial 
and  ritual  customs,  so  that  the  high-minded  Christian  Jew  could 
hardly  understand  how  any  one,  for  instance,  could  hold  fast  to 
this  moral  ideal  as  portrayed  in  Hermas  and  at  the  same  time 
eat  blood  or  things  strangled.  Hence  the  struggle,  touched 
upon  in  Acts,  which  embittered  the  life  of  Paul  was  not  simply 
a  struggle  for  circumcision  and  the  outward  law,  but  for  these 
things  as  symbols  of  a  distinctly  thought  out  moral  type  and 
ethical  ideal. 

In  the  letter  of  James  and  in  Hermas  this  ideal  may  best  be 
studied,  and  one  realizes  at  once  how  impossible  it  would  have 
been  to  found  an  enthusiastic  martyr  church  on  such  a  basis. 
The  ideal  is  noble,  cold,  and  formal.  It  can  no  more  stir  the 
blood  than  Lessing's  "Nathan  the  Wise,"  however  willing  we 
may  be  to  assent  to  the  admirable  character  of  the  type.  It 
involved  an  entirely  different  conception  of  God  and  estimate 
of  sin  from  that  of  Paul's  teaching.     However  much  the  actual 

*  Eph.  2  :  11-22.  ^  I  Cor.  i  :  17.  *         *  Gal.   4  :  10. 

*  Gal.  5  :  16-21.  *  Gal.  6  :  i;  Cor.  2  :  5-11. 


io8  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

activities  of  the  Christian  Hfe  may  be  described  in  the  same  words, 
the  rehgious  ideal  is  most  emphatically  not  the  same. 

It  was,  as  we  have  seen,  no  intentional  polemic  against  Paul 
that  found  its  way  into  James,  for  even  his  use  of  "the  faith  of 
Abraham"  was  only  a  reference  to  a  standard  illustration  of  the 
relationship  of  works  to  trust  (c/.  Philo's  treatise,  "  De  Migra- 
tione  Abrahami,"  especially  §§  i6  and  20);  but  none  the  less  it 
should  be  quite  impossible  to  honestly  overlook  the  fact  that  the 
Old  Catholic,  or  Bishop's  church,  had  sooner  or  later  to  choose 
between  the  two  conceptions  of  the  Christian  life  as  a  basis  for 
the  establishment  of  a  conquering  organization. 

The  second  great  historical  interest  was  speculative.  To  the 
Hellenistic  mind  a  unified  view  of  the  world,  a  common  theory 
of  knowledge,  and  a  cosmogony  deeply  tinged  with  symbolic 
mythology  took  the  place  that  the  Jew  gave  to  a  common  wor- 
ship, a  legal  system  and  training  in  a  distinct  moral  system. 

For  the  Jew,  his  cosmogony,  which  he  probably  borrowed 
directly  from  Babylon,  was  only  a  background  for  the  exhibition 
of  Jehovah  as  the  Creator.  For  the  Hellenic  mind  the  essence 
of  the  religious  life  was  the  interpretation  of  the  world  in  a 
speculative  system  of  truth.  To  hold  this  truth  was  to  know 
God.  The  attempt  to  translate  the  religious  and  ethical 
enthusiasms  of  the  early  church  into  a  speculative  system  and  to 
make  that  system  the  uniform  and  essential  basis  of  the  world- 
wide propaganda,  was  the  work  Gnosticism  undertook,  and  it  was 
under  the  pressure  of  this  attempt  that  the  Old  Catholic  church, 
with  the  help  of  Greek-trained  minds,  formulated  her  creed  ac- 
cepting and  rejecting  various  elements,  though  constantly  doing 
so  with  another  interest  than  the  purely  intellectual  one  domi- 
nating her  action.* 

For  historically  a  third  interest  triumphed.  The  political 
instinct  of  Roman  imperialism,  which  makes  itself  felt  even  in 
Clement's  first  letter,  had  a  conception  of  law  distinctly  different 

'  Cf.  Hatch:  "  The  Organization  of  the  Early  Christian  Churches,"  1881, 
pp.  68-72;  RitschI:  "Die  Entstehung  dcr  allkalholischen  Kirche,"  1S57,  pp. 
347-436- 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      109 

from  that  of  Judaism.  For  the  Roman  world  law  was  the 
expression  of  the  group  life  in  its  relation  to  the  individual;  for 
Judaism  law  was  the  expression  of  a  relation  of  the  group  to 
Jehovah. 

The  collective  responsibility  of  the  group  to  Jehovah  for  the 
keeping  of  the  law  by  the  individual  was  exceedingly  pronounced. 
In  the  thought  of  the  early  church  this  element  was,  no  doubt, 
ever  present.  A  holy  group  awaited  the  coming  Messiah.  But 
before  long  the  eschatological  interest  *  was  swallowed  up  in  the 
organization  interest.  Law  becomes  the  basis  of  the  propagan- 
dist organization  because  it  regulates  the  conduct  of  the  group  to 
the  individual  in  the  thoroughly  Roman  sense. 

This  legal  regulation  was  all  the  more  necessary  as  the  church 
became  more  and  more  homogeneous  and  her  influence  in- 
creased. In  the  life  of  this  Organization  slaves  and  women 
found  spheres  for  activity  forbidden  them  in  the  "secular" 
world.  The  humble  slaVe  who  was  no  factor  in  the  public 
political  life  of  Rome  or  the  empire  could  yet  become  an  impor- 
tant element  in  the  "■  Imperium  in  imperio"  (Bishop  Calixtus). 
Uniformity  of  political  organization,  uniformity  of  ritual  and 
worship,  uniformity  of  authority  and  life,  were  symbols  of  the 
world-wide  character  of  this  new  imperialism,  and  both  intel- 
lectual systems  and  moral  ideals  were  important  but  subject  in 
the  last  analysis  to  these  high  political  interests  and  world- 
conquering  enthusiasms. 

Hence  the  ethical  systems  of  the  Old  Catholic  church  from 
James  to  Augustine  may  be  classed  as  belonging  mainly  either 
to  the  Judaistic,  the  Greek,  or  the  Roman  type,  but  with  the 
last  interest  dominating.  And  although  the  three  ideals  are 
never  wholly  exclusive  of  other  interests,  yet  the  main  current  of 
ethical  thought  is  always  determined  by  the  central  interest,  and 
often  we  must  interpret  current  phrases,  not  in  their  historic  or 
natural  sense,  but  in  the  light  of  the  interpretation  put  upon 
them  by  new  conditions.  There  is  a  gradual  assimilation  of 
some  exceedingly  uncongenial  elements  in  the  prevailing  dog- 

'  Matt.  24;   Mark  13;    Luke  21;    Apoc,  etc. 


no  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

matic  construction,  but  the  assimilation  is  never  quite  complete, 
and  many  contradictory  ethical  conceptions  jostle  one  another 
within  the  system. 

As  a  dogmatic  interest  gradually  usurped  the  place  of  the 
ethical  the  picture  becomes  more  and  more  confused,  and  as  the 
political  interest  gradually  asserted  its  power  and  forced  a 
dogmatic  uniformity  upon  the  world,  it  was  a  queer,  discordant, 
systemless  system  both  in  theology  and  ethics  that  became 
"orthodox." 

One  of  the  interesting  examples  of  the  old,  essentially  Jewish, 
conceptions  of  what  should  be  the  moral  type  on  which  the 
Christian  church  should  build  her  life  is  found  in  the  extraordi- 
narily popular  book,  "The  Pastor  or  Shepherd  ofHermas" 
(iroturjv),  which  enjoyed  canonical  or  quasi-canonical  authority 
in  the  early  church.  Irenceus,  Clement,  Origen,  and,  in  his 
early  days,  even  Tertullian,  quote  it  as  with  authority. 

I.      THE   ETHICS   OF   UNORGANIZED   CHRISTIANITY 

The  Shepherd  of  Hermas.—ln  the  "Shepherd  of  Hermas,"  * 
written  about  loo  to  150  A.  D.,  we  find  a  further  development  of 
that  type  of  thought  which,  if  not  actually  hostile  to  the  Pauline 
interpretation  of  Christianity,  was  either  perfectly  ignorant  of  it 
or  wholly  failed  to  catch  its  real  meaning.  The  ethical  concep- 
tion of  Hermas  is  Judaism  touched  by  the  asceticism  of  Hellen- 
istic thought.  Righteousness  consists  in  obedience  to  com- 
mandments. "  Be  not  confounded,"  says  the  heavenly  Shepherd 
messenger  to  him,  "but  stir  up  in  thy  mind  virtue,  through  the 

*  Greek  editions:  F.  X.  Funk,  Latin  translation,  Tubingen,  18S1,  2  vols.; 
also  Otto  von  Gebhardt  and  Harnack,  in  "Tc.xte  und  Untersuchungen,"  and  also 
Latin  translation,  Mignc,  vol.  II.  Translation  in  "Ante-Niccne  Christian 
Fathers,"  vol.  II  of  the  "Apostolic  Fathers."  German  translation  by  J.  C. 
Mayer,  1869.  Literature  is  very  extensive;  cf.  Harnack's  "Gcschichte  der 
altchristlichen  Litteratur  bis  Eusebius,"  vol.  I,  pp.  49-58,  for  the  sources  and 
manuscripts.  Text  and  translation  in  Lightfoot's  "  Apostolic  Fathers,"  London, 
1885,  2  vols.,  in  four  parts,  where  also  copious  notes  and  literary  references  are 
given,  with  short  introductions,  revised  texts,  and  translations,  in  one  volume, 
London,  189 1. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      iii 

commandments  which  I  am  about  to  give  unto  thee."  *  These 
commandments  are  preceded  by  a  series  of  rather  stupid  and 
pointless  "visions."  Hermas  finds  the  Lord  "angry  with  him" 
for  the  sins  of  his  family,  and  the  church  in  the  image  of  an  old 
woman  delivers  messages  in  which  martyrdom  is  placed  very 
high.^  Hermas  wants  to  sit  at  the  right  hand  and  is  rebuked;  ^ 
only  those  who  have  endured  "scourgings,  prisonments,  great 
tribulations,  crosses,  wild  beasts  on  account  of  his  name  "  have 
given  to  them  this  "certain  glory"  {Bo^av  tlvo)  of  sitting 
at  the  right  hand.  Baptism  is  the  foundation  of  the  church.* 
The  righteous  life  is  filled  with  recurring  repentance,^  and  yet 
after  baptism  only  one  repentance  is  permitted.^  This  is  only 
one  illustration  of  the  hesitancy  in  the  casuistry  to  which  ethics 
sinks  in  the  treatment  of  the  "Shepherd."  Another  is  the  atti- 
tude toward  marriage.  One  wife  is  permitted,  but  a  second 
marriage  is  deplored.'  The  opening  scene  rebukes  Hermas  for 
what  surely  must  be  interpreted  symbolically,  namely,  longing  for 
a  wife  of  such  beauty  and  grace  as  he  once  had  seen  in  a  slave 
girl  whom  he  loved  as  a  sister.^  The  lesson  being  that  even  inno- 
cent love  for  things  earthly  is  distracting  for  the  soul.  For  the 
coming  of  the  Lord  is  so  nigh  that  possessions,  except  as  affording 
a  chance  for  giving  alms,  are  a  burden  and  a  hinderance  to  the 
divine  life.^  Yet  the  rich  man  may  be  the  elm-tree  to  which  the 
vine  (the  poor  man)  clings,  and  by  giving  fruit  under  the  elm's 
(rich  man's)  protection  contributes  to  the  rich  man's  salvation, 
"  for  when  therefore  the  rich  man  hands  out  to  the  poor  man  those 
things  he  needs,  the  poor  man  prays  unto  the  Lord  for  the  rich 
man,  and  God  grants  unto  the  rich  man  all  good  things ;  because 
the  poor  man  is  rich  in  prayer,  and  his  requests  have  great  power 
with  the  Lord."  ^°    The  crassness  of  this  conception  contrasts 

'  Vis.  V,  4.      ■ 

*  Vis.  Ill,  c.  2,  1-4.    The  references  are  to  Funk's  edition. 

3  Cf.  Mark  10  :  35.  *  Vis.  Ill,  c.  3,  5.  ^  Vis.  Ill,  c.  5,  2-5. 

*Mand.,  IV,  c.  3,  6. 

">  r-fipei.  oZv  TT}v  ayvelav  Kal  rrjv  creixvdTtjTa.     Mand.  IV,  c.  4,  3. 

'  Vis.  I,  c.  I,  1-2;  cf.  with  the  interpretation  in  c.  i,  8. 

*  Sim.  I,  I.  *"  irXovcrla  irpbs  t6v  debv.     Sim.  II,  6. 


112  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

most  unfavorably  with  James/  and  reveals  the  lowering  of  the 
conception  of  the  righteous  man  even  from  the  Jewish  Christian 
point  of  view.^  Hermas  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  James 
type  of  moral  ideal,  but  the  enthusiasm  has  largely  departed. 
At  the  same  time  fasting  is  to  be  of  the  spirit,  and  the  true  fast 
is  keeping  one's  self  from  evil,  and  making  the  abstinence  an 
opportunity  for  giving  to  the  poor — therefore  not  in  itself  to  be 
too  highly  thought  of.'  Angels  play  a  leading  part  throughout, 
and  the  judgment  scene  is  a  very  complicated  estimate  of  various 
classes  of  men  far  removed  in  power  and  beauty  from  Matt. 
25  :  31-45.''  As  in  the  Apocalypse,  the  figure  twelve  plays  a  dis- 
tinct part,^  but  the  apostleship  is  enlarged  to  forty ,*  and  a  further 
thirty-five  "Prophets  and  ministers  of  the  Lord"  added.^ 
The  virtues  are  set  over  against  the  vices  in  an  instructive  way, 
and  are  twelve  in  number:  Faith,  Abstinence  ('EvAcpaTeta), 
Power  (/^vvafjLL<i),  Patience,  Simplicity,  Innocence,  Chastity 
{'Ayveta),  Cheerfulness,  Truth,  Understanding,  Concord,  and 
Love:  over  against  these  are  set  Want  of  Faith  CAvta-Tia), 
Intemperance,  Faithlessness  {'A-rreideLa),  Voluptuousness,  then 
Despondency  (Autt?;),  Malice,  Lust,  Anger,  Lying,  Stupidity 
{'A<f)poavv7)),  Pride,  and  Hatred.  In  each  group  the  first 
four  are  singled  out  as  the  chief  ones,  the  others  being  below 
them  in  value.^  Baptism  is  a  symbol  of  death  to  the  old  life, 
"For  before  a  man  receives  the  Name  of  the  Son  of  God,  he 
is  ordained  unto  Death;  but  when  he  receives  the  seal  he  is  freed 
from  Death,  and  delivered  unto  Life.  Now  that  seal  is  water, 
into  which  men  go  down  under  the  obligation  unto  Death,  but 
come  up  appointed  unto  Life."  °  This  whole  paragraph  is 
interesting  in  relation  to  Paul's  teaching  of  baptism  for  the  dead, 
and  the  passage  in  Peter  about  preaching  to  the  spirits  in  prison."* 
For  according  to  the  Shepherd  the  aposdes  die,  who  "preached 

'  2  :  i-io. 

=  C/.,  however,  James  5  :  16,  "Prayer  of  a  righteous  man." 
'  Sim.  V,  1-5.  *  Cf.  the  whole  Sim.  VIII.  »  Sim.  IX,  c.  17,  1-4. 

«  ol  Si  fi'  ivbaroXoi  Kal  SiddcTKaXoi  toO  Ktip&yftaroi  toO  vloO  rod  5eoO.     Sim.  IX, 
c.  15,  4.  '  Sim.  IX,   15.  '  Sim.  IX,  15,  1-4. 

•  Sim.  IX,  16,  2-7.  '"  I  Cor.  15  :  29  and  I  Pet.  3  :  18-22. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      113 

in  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God  after  they  had  received  his  Faith 
and  Power,  and  preached  to  them  who  were  dead  before,  and 
they  gave  the  Seal  to  them.  They  went  down,  therefore,  into  the 
water  with  them,  and  again  came  up."  * 

Interesting  as  is  the  book  from  an  historic  point  of  view,  it 
opens  our  eyes  to  the  enormous  difference  between  the  spiritual 
and  ethical  ideals  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  average  life  of 
the  early  Christian  church,  yet  this  difference  between  Hermas 
and  the  New  Testament  was  felt;  and  although  the  book  is 
freely  used  with  the  canonical  writings  by  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
and  is  called  by  Origen  a  "divine  writing"  (Ep.  ad  Rom.  com. 
X,  c.  31),  yet  it  never  really  attained  the  spiritual  and  ethical 
influence  of  even  its  nearest  progenitor  in  the  New  Testament — 
the  book  of  James. 

The  thoroughly  Jewish  character  of  the  book  is  seen  in  not 
only  the  free  use  of  the  sacred  numbers,  especially  twelve,  but 
in  the  gross  eudaemonism  of  its  ethics.^  The  ethics  has  room  for 
works  of  supererogation.  "If  you  do  any  good  beyond  what  is 
commanded  by  God,  you  will  gain  for  yourself  more  abundant 
glory,  and  will  be  more  honored  of  God  than  you  would  other- 
wise be."  ^  And  like  the  Jewish  ethics  in  general,  it  is  a  group 
ethics.  Throughout  it  is  the  "  household  "  that  is  warned,  praised, 
and  punished.''  Infants  are  innocent  and  holy,  "  for  all  infants 
are  honorable  before  God,  and  are  the  first  persons  with  him."  ^ 
There  is  as  yet  no  taint  here  of  original  sin  as  a  characteristic  of 
the  body. 

The  contrast  with  the  New  Testament  conceptions,  even  on 
their  lowest  levels,  is  striking.  It  compares  unfavorably  even 
with  such  a  letter  as  that  of  Barnabas. 

The  Letter  of  Barnabas.^ — This  general  letter  ascribed  by 

*  Sim.  IX,  16,  3-4.  *  Sim.  V,  c.  3,  and  many  other  places. 

*  Loc.  cit.  *  Vis.  I,  c.  3;   Sim.  7,  and  many  places. 

*  Sim.  IX,  c.  29;  cf.  Mark  10  :  13-16. 

*  Editions:  F.  X.  Funk,  1887,  vol.  I;  Otto  von  Gebhardt  and  Harnack,  in 
"Texte  und  Untersuchungen,"  1878;  W.  Cunningham,  London,  1877;  A. 
Hilgenfeld,  1877.  English  translation  in  Ante-Nicene  Library,  vol.  I,  p.  97  of 
"Apostolic   Fathers";   also  in  Lightfoot's  "Apostolic   Fathers"  are  text  and 


114  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Clement  of  Alexandria  to  Barnabas,  but  probably  incorrectly/ 
is  under  the  distinct  influence  of  the  Pauline  interpretation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  It  breathes  the  Pauline  spirit  and  uses  many  of 
his  favorite  phrases.  "I  think  that  I  love  you  more  than  my 
own  soul  (irrrep  rrjv  -yjrvxv^  l^ov)  because  of  the  greatness  of 
the  Faith  and  Love  that  dwelleth  in  you,"  ^  The  days  are 
evil,  and  the  virtues  that  are  to  assist  faith  are  Fear  and  Patience, 
with  Long  Suffering  and  Abstinence  as  fellow-fighters,  when 
then  Wisdom,  Knowledge,  Prudence  and  Understanding  will 
rejoice  together  with  them.  The  problem  of  how  to  use  the 
Old  Testament  without  becoming  entangled  again  in  legalism  is 
met  with  the  blunt  assertion  that  the  Lord  had  himself  rejected 
sacrifice  by  the  word  of  the  prophets,  quoting  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah  as  evidence  that  "these  things  therefore  hath  God 
abolished,  that  the  new  law  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which  is 
without  the  yoke  of  such  necessity  might  have  an  oblation  not 
made  by  men."  ^  The  coming  of  the  Lord  is  near,^  and  hating 
the  evils  of  the  present  era  men  are  to  look  forward  to  the  happi- 
ness of  the  new  era.  Enoch  and  Daniel  are  quoted,  and  the 
last  times  warn  us  to  "strive  to  the  utmost  of  our  power  to  keep 
His  commandments;  that  we  may  rejoice  in  His  righteous 
judgments."  The  fall  of  Jerusalem  is  spoken  of  in  4  :  14  and 
16  :  4  as  a  warning  of  what  will  overtake  unfaithfulness. 
The  ethics  of  the  book  centre  about  the  two  ways,  one  of  truth 
and  the  other  of  darkness.  The  formalism  of  circumcision  is 
condemned,  and  symbolic  and  mystic  interpretations  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  of  the  passion  of  our  Lord  take  the  place  of 
arguments  against  Jewish  legalism,  and  are  made  to  instruct  in 

translation  and  copious  notes.  Cf.  also  German  translation  by  J.  C.  Mayer, 
Sources  and  critical  aparatus  in  Kriiger's  "Geschichte  der  altchristlichen 
Litteratur,"  1895,  pp.  12-14;  English  translation  by  Chas.  R.  Gillett,  pp.  18-21. 
New  York,  1897;  Harnack's  "Geschichte  der  altchristlichen  Litteratur,"  pp. 
58-62.  Cf.  Weizsaecker's  "Zur  Kritik  des  Buches  Barnabas,"  1863.  The 
references  are  here  to  Funk's  edition. 

'  Against  the  authorship  by  Barnabas  is  usually  alleged  that  the  writing  dis- 
plays ignorance  of  Jewish  usage. 
»  I  :  4-  '2:6.  *  4  :  3- 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      115 

morals  by  unnatural  and  indeed  impossible  interpretations. 
Over  the  "ways"  are  appointed  angels  of  light  and  angels  of 
Satan.  "One  is  the  Lord  from  Everlasting,  the  other  is  the 
Prince  of  the  time  of  Unrighteousness."  ^  Then  follows  a  short 
summary  of  the  Christian  life  in  which  the  virtues  are  enforced. 
Interesting  is  the  injunction  with  regard  to  gentle  treatment  of 
the  "slave  who  fears  God,"  and  the  command  to  love  the 
neighbor  "better  than  thine  own  soul,"^  and  the  injunction, 
"Thou  shalt  not  call  anything  thine  own,"  and  "Thou  shalt 
communicate  to  thy  neighbor  all  that  thou  hast.^  The  Christian 
is  also  to  "  call  to  remembrance,  day  and  night,  the  future  judg- 
ment," and  to  "meditate  how  thou  mayest  save  thine  own  soul." 
He  is  also  to  "labor  with  his  own  hands  that  his  sins  may  be 
forgiven  him."  *  The  way  of  darkness  is  a  vivid  description  of 
the  sins  so  well  known  in  all  the  history  of  man's  transgressions, 
witchcraft  having  a  prominent  place  in  the  list,^  and  the  special 
sexual  sins  being  duly  rebuked.  The  closing  exhortation  is  again 
based  upon  the  near  expectancy  of  the  coming  of  Jesus,  and  the 
firm  faith  in  a  resurrection  from  the  dead,  and  a  final  retribution." 
The  whole  ethical  tone  of  writing  is  lofty  and  gracious,  and 
though  below  even  the  less  important  New  Testament  letters  is 
full  of  fresh  creative  moral  enthusiasm,  its  morals  are  still 
matters  of  life,  and  the  outlook  is  on  a  freer  and  fairer  world  yet 
to  come.  What  is  most  depressing  is  the  lack  of  real  intellectual 
seriousness,  the  failure  to  rationally  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  Old 
Testament  religious  movement,  and  to  follow  up  the  hints  of 
Paul  as  to  the  real  significance  of  the  law.  The  arbitrary  and 
fanciful  misconstructions  of  the  Old  Testament,  so  prominent  in 
this  early  literature,  have  lasted  in  their  evil  effects  into  our  own 
day. 

There  is  in  the  letter  no  such  clearly  cut  dominant  interest  as 
we  find  in  the  letter  of  Clement. 

The  First  Epistle  0}  Clement. — The  name  of  the  author  is  only 
a  matter  of  tradition.     It  is  a  letter  sent  by  the  Roman  church 

*  18  :  I.  *  19  :  5-  »  19  :  8. 

*  19  :  10.  *  20  :  I.  •  21  :  I. 


ii6  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

to  the  church  at  Corinth/  and  is  of  early  date  as  it  is  used  by 
Polycarp,  and  is  mentioned  by  Hegesippus  (Eusebius,  "Church 
History,"  III  :  i6;  IV  :  22  :  i).  It  was  not  reckoned  by  Eusebius 
as  canonical,  but  was  highly  esteemed  by  him.  Its  date  may 
with  fair  certainty  be  said  to  be  anywhere  from  about  98  to  120 
A.  D.  Of  all  the  writings  ascribed  to  Clement,  this  alone  can 
be  used  by  the  historian  as  really  reflecting  the  ethical  develop- 
ment of  the  first  centuries.  To  the  student  of  ethics  the  letter 
has  great  significance.  The  political  sense  of  the  Roman  church 
is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  wholly  unpractical  character  of  the 
Greek-Oriental  speculation  with  its  constant  disputations,  sects, 
schools,  and  personal  followings.  With  the  dogmatic  interest  of 
the  letter  we  are  not  concerned. 

The  letter  emphasizes  the  virtues  of  the  organized  life,  sub- 
mission to  authority,  humility  in  personal  judgment,  freedom 
from  envy  and  ambition.  Abraham  is  praised  not  for  his  faith 
but  for  his  obedience.^  So  also  Lot's  wife  failed  not  in  faith 
but  in  obedience  or  lack  of  concord.^  And  this  lack  of  harmony 
is  traced  throughout  the  Old  Testament,  always  bringing  its 
appropriate  disaster.  Pride,  boasting,  foolishness,  and  anger  are 
especially  condemned.  And  thus  obedience  to  the  organization 
is  identified  with  obedience  to  God:  "We  should  become  obedient 
unto  God  rather  than  follow  such  as  through  pride  and  turbu- 
lence have  made  themselves  leaders  and  authors  of  detestable 
emulation."  *  We  see  in  the  letter  all  the  virtues  so  constantly 
heralded  by  the  Roman  military  organization,  obedience,  humil- 
ity, submission  to  authority,  the  unquestioning  acceptance  of  au- 
thority, all  iterated  and  reiterated,  and  see  also  the  profound 

'Greek  editions  are  those  of  Funk,  F.  X.,  Tubingen,  1S81;  Gebhardt 
and  Harnack,  1876;  Hilgenfeld,  1876.  An  English  translation  in  the  Ante- 
Nicene  Library,  vol.  I.  A  German  translation  by  J.  C.  Mayer.  A  Latin  trans- 
lation in  Funk  edition.  Te.\t,  notes,  and  English  translation  in  Lightfoot's 
"Apostolic  Fathers."  Full  accounts  of  the  letter  arc  contained  in  Wrede's 
"Untersuchung  zum  ersten  Klemensbrief,"  Gottingcn,  1807,  and  in  Harnack's 
"  Altchristliche  Litteratur,"  pp.  39-47;  also  in  Kriiger's  shorter  work  with  the 
same  title.     Translation  by  C.  R.  Gillett. 

'  olroi  SI  viraKorjs  ^ijXdev.      10  :  2,  7. 

*  oiiK  iv  6tiofol(/..     11:2.  *  14  :  I. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      117 

instinct  underlying  the  demand.  Peace  and  concord  and  un- 
questioning acceptance  of  the  established  doctrine  and  system 
were  the  corner-stones  on  which  the  new  organization  was  to  be 
built. 

So  again  the  letter  goes  on  to  emphasize  the  concord  of  the 
universe:  "The  Heavens  holding  fast  to  his  appointment  are 
subject  to  Him  in  peace."  "Spring  and  summer,  autumn  and 
winter  give  place  peaceably  to  each  other."  "  Even  the  smallest 
creatures  live  together  in  peace  and  concord,"  ^  It  remains, 
therefore,  only  to  "  hold  fast  to  those  to  whom  God  has  given 
grace,"  ^  and  to  above  all  things  avoid  "love  of  novelty,"  which 
is  placed  among  the  abominable  lusts  together  with  "detestable 
pride." 

Highly  suggestive  and  characteristic  is  also  the  reference  to  the 
Roman  military  organization  as  a  model  for  the  church.  "Let 
us  consider  those  who  fight  under  our  leaders — what  order,  what 
obedience,  with  what  submission  they  follow  out  the  commands! 
All  are  not  prefects  or  captains  of  thousands  nor  of  hundreds, 
nor  of  fifties  nor  yet  of  tens."  '  And  naturally  Paul's  figure  is 
also  used.*  Moreover  regular  seasons  and  ordered  service  are 
by  no  means  to  be  neglected,^  these  things  are  by  divine  appoint- 
ment as  "ordained  by  His  supreme  will  and  authority,  both 
where  and  by  what  persons  they  are  to  be  performed."  ^  The 
high-priest  again  finds  his  place  in  the  once  priestless  early 
organization  and  "the  layman  ^  is  confined  to  the  things  of  the 
laity."  *  Thus  all  the  foundations  are  laid  for  the  priestly 
organization  with  its  own  code  of  morals  and  appropriate 
ethical  emphasis.  The  letter  also  brings  in  again  the  abandoned 
sacred  place.  "  The  daily  sacrifices  were  not  offered  everywhere 
.  .  .  but  only  at  Jerusalem  .  .  .  and  there  only  at  the  altar 
before  the  temple."  ^  It  now  only  remains  to  identify  the 
apostles  with  the  existing  ecclesiastical  order  and  the  argument 

>  20  :  I,  9,  10.  '30  :  3-  '37  :  2- 

*  I  Cor.  12  :  12-30,  the  body  and  the  members. 

*  40  :  1-2.  •  40  :  3-5.  ">  6  Xoidds  AvOpuiros. 
'  40  :  5.                                     »  41  :  2. 


ii8  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

is  complete;  this  the  writer  also  does.  These  apostles,  knowing 
that  contention  would  arise,  "appointed  persons,"  and  when 
"they  should  die  other  chosen  and  approved  men  should 
succeed  in  their  ministry,"  and  "it  would  be  no  small  sin  in  us 
to  reject  those  from  their  ministry  who  holily  and  without  blame 
fulfil  its  duties."  ~  The  letter  of  Paul  is  cited,  and  "  the  sedition  " 
is  condemned.  There  is  no  attempt  to  enter  into  the  merits  of 
the  question;  the  appeal  is  to  the  authority  of  tradition  or  the 
Bible ^  or  the  appointed  "presbyters."^  The  whole  ethical 
horizon  of  the  Pauline  freedom  of  love  is  obscured  again  by  the 
codes  required  for  organization  purposes  and  by  the  virtues 
needed  in  a  closely  compacted  fighting  propaganda.  Love  is 
sung  in  truly  beautiful  echoes  of  the  Pauline  proclamation,^ 
but  it  is  only  the  love  that  subm^ts  that  says,  "I  am  ready  to 
depart;  to  go  away  whithersoever  ye  please,  and  to  do  what- 
soever ye  shall  desire  of  me,  only  let  the  flock  of  Christ  ®  be  in 
peace  with  the  presbyters  that  are  set  over  her.  He  that  shall 
do  this  shall  get  to  himself  a  very  great  reward  in  Christ,  and 
every  place  will  receive  him."  ^  Submission  to  the  presbyters  is 
then  identified  with  submission  to  God,^  and  with  a  very  beau- 
tiful doxology  the  letter  closes. 

Lofty  and  beautiful  as  is  the  letter  in  many  of  its  appeals,  and 
true,  and,  no  doubt,  very  essential  as  was  its  emphasis  upon 
unity,  concord,  and  peace,  the  ethics  of  the  book  is  the  ethics  of 
an  unquestioning  submission  to  an  outward  authority.  It  is 
from  Rome,  and  almost  startles  us  with  its  anticipations  of  the 
dramatic  changes  that  so  soon  overtook  the  ethical  ideals  of  the 
spiritual  kingdom  of  Jesus'  dream. 

The  Teaching  oj  the  Twelve  Apostles.^ — It  is  very  tempting  to 
deal  in  the  contrasts  between  Jewish  and  Christian,  between 
Greek  and  Roman  tendencies;   but  one  may  easily  be  thus  led 

'42:1-5.  -44:    1-3.  =■45:1-  ■*  47  :  6.  »  49  and  50. 

"  rb  irol/iviov  toO  xP'^'toO.  ^  54  •  3-  '  57  ■  '• 

'  The  first  edition,  1883,  by  Bryennios,  was  followed  by  many  editions:  Har- 
nack,  1884;  Hilgenfeld,  1884;  Wiinsche,  text  and  German  translation,  1884; 
J.  Rendell  Harris,  1887  (with  facsimile  autotype);  Philip  SchafT,  18S5;  Hitch- 
cock and  Brown,  1884;  and  a  literature  too  large  for  complete  citation. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      119 

astray.  For  the  ethical  student  there  are  more  imperative 
forces  than  national  or  even  racial  factors.  The  needs  of  an 
organization,  whether  in  China  or  Japan,  in  England  or  Ger- 
many, will  produce  rules  of  conduct  and  habits  of  mind  exactly 
resembling  each  other  so  far  as  the  needs  of  the  organization 
happen  to  be  the  same.  The  early  church  was  soon  a  fighting 
organization,  with  a  settled  purpose.  It  had  as  traditions  the 
life  of  Judaism,  but  was  made  up  of  those  who  belonged  also 
to  the  life  of  Rome  and  Greece.  The  compacting  force  of  hostile 
attacks  compelled  it  to  adopt  a  special  ethics  and  to  consolidate 
its  life  and  traditions.  It  took  freely  wherever  it  could  find  that 
which  suited  its  purpose.  In  the  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 
we  have  the  consolidation  process  which  we  have  seen  in  the 
Roman  letter  going  on  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  more  strictly 
Jewish  tradition.  For  our  purpose  it  is  of  little  consequence  to 
trace  the  relation  of  the  "Teachings"  to  the  "Two  ways"  or  to 
the  Barnabas  letter.  The  relation  is  evident.*  As  Clement's 
letter  reminds  us  of  Paul,  the  "Teaching"  reminds  us  of  James, 
but  in  both  works  the  movement  from  the  ethical  freedom  of  the 
primitive  apostolic  enthusiasm  to  the  conventional  morality  of 
an  institutional  life  is  the  marked  feature.  The  subjective  and 
final  certainties  of  a  great  moral  insight  begin  to  seek  refuge 
in  the  traditions  of  the  elders,  the  institutions  of  a  church,  and 
the  conventions  of  a  sect.  This  must  be  deplored,  but  we  are 
not  to  suppose  that  any  early  institution  ever  lived  on  the  level 
of  Paul  or  John's  religious  convictions.  The  church  as  such 
never  was  on  those  heights,  and  without  the  formulation  of  the 
apostolic  attainments,  and  the  fixing  of  standards  in  an  institu- 
tional life,  we  might  never  have  had  contact  with  these  sources 
of  constantly  reviving  enthusiasm.  The  church  began  to  teach, 
not  as  Jesus  and  Paul  had  taught,  but  as  the  scribes. 

The  Didache  deals  with  Christian  ethics  on  the  basis  of  the 
Matthew  tradition  of  the  teachings  of  our  Lord,  then  gives 
liturgical    instructions   and  ecclesiastical  directions,  and  ends 

'  If  the  author  had  to  have  an  opinion  he  would  follow  Holtzmann  in  thinking 
of  a  common  origin  for  both;   so  also  Lightfoot. 


I20  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

with  the  expressed  hope  of  the  near  coming  of  the  kingdom  in 
power. 

It  is  entirely  without  vital  contact  with  the  Pauline  interpreta- 
tion of  Christianity,  but  the  omission  of  Paul  in  the  "twelve" 
apostles  only  reflects  perhaps  unthinking  usage,  as  in  Justin 
Martyr's  *  39;  at  least  there  is  no  obvious  polemic  against 
Paul's  way  of  thinking  such  as  even  James  suggests  to  some. 
One  of  the  obvious  "organization"  virtues  was  alms,  and  these 
are  duly  enforced.  Hospitality  was  another  virtue  of  great 
weight  in  the  loosely  knit  community,  and  it  is  carefully 
regulated,  but  also  enforced.^  The  term  "  Xpto-Te/ATro/jo? " 
("Christ-monger"),  showing  how  much  this  virtue  was  played 
upon  by  pretenders,  and  perhaps  the  quotation  from  a  lost  source 
in  I  :  6,  "  Let  thine  alms  sweat  ^  into  thy  hands  till  thou  know 
to  whom  thou  shouldst  give,"  is  a  hint  at  this  same  evil  of 
promiscuous  aid  to  the  unworthy.  The  commandments  are 
enlarged  to  forbid  sins  not  mentioned  in  the  Matthew  source 
nor  in  the  Old  Testament.*  As  in  Barnabas  and  perhaps  taken 
from  a  common  source,  we  are  bidden  to  love  our  neighbors 
better  than  ourselves,^  and  the  directions  about  the  treatment  of 
the  slave  recall  Barnabas.'  They  are  not  to  have  command- 
ments laid  upon  them  in  bitterness,  "lest  they  should  not  fear 
him  who  is  God  over  both." 

In  chapter  IV  we  find  the  organization  virtues  receive  the 
emphasis:  "My  child  thou  shalt  remember  night  and  day  him 
that  speaks  to  thee  the  word  of  God,  and  thou  shalt  honor  him 
as  the  Lord,'  for  where  the  Lordship  (dominion)  {Kvpi6Tr)<;)  is 
spoken  of  there  is  the  Lord."  ^  "Thou  shalt  not  desire  (make) 
division."  '  Thou  shalt  not  turn  away  him  that  needeth,  but 
shalt  share  all  things  with  thy  brother,  and  shalt  not  say  that  they 
(possessions)  are  thine  own,  for  if  you  are  sharers  in  that  which 

'  Apologia  pro  Christianis.  '  12  :  1-5. 

•  Accepting  Brycnnios's  emendation  of  the  text. 

*  oil  ■]ratSo<t>6opi/i(r(ii  .  .  .  ov  (Povfiaen  riKvov  ivipdopq.  ov5i  •)/evvT)divra.  [yeyvrjOiy 
in  Funk;  ffvyrjO^vra  in  l.ightfoot).     iiroKTtvtU.      2  :   2. 

'2:7  (virip  t})v  ^vx'fl^  ffov);   cf.  p.   1 14. 

•4:10.  '  uis  Ki/fiiov.  '4:1.  •4:3. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      121 

is  imperishable,  how  much  more  in  perishable  things  ?  *  Slaves 
are  to  be  subject  to  masters  "as  to  the  image  of  God."  ^  "In 
the  congregation  thou  shalt  confess  thy  sins."  ^ 

The  gospel  of  work  had  become  very  necessary  (II  Thess.  3  :  7- 
12);  and  chapter XII  refers  probably  not  to  the  individual  attitude 
so  much  as  to  the  associated  church  life  and  its  responsibility  for 
the  wayfarer.  The  exceedingly  un-Pauline  character  of  the 
Teaching  is  plain  in  such  an  admonition  as  "  Take  heed  that  no 
one  lead  thee  astray  from  this  way  of  teaching,  since  he  teaches 
thee  apart  from  God.  For  if  indeed  thou  art  able  to  bear  the 
whole  yoke  of  the  Lord,  thou  shalt  be  perfect,**  but  if  thou  art  not 
able,  what  thou  art  able  that  do!''  and  "against  idol-offerings  be 
exceedingly  on  thy  guard,  for  it  is  a  sacrifice  of  dead  gods.' 
The  attitude  toward  fasting  is  characteristic  of  the  rapidly 
formalizing  process.  The  fasts  of  the  hypocrites  are  condemned, 
and  are  not  to  be  kept,  but  on  other  days.  The  prayers  are  not 
to  be  as  the  hypocrites,  but  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  to  be  said  three 
times  a  day! ' 

Forms  of  prayer  are  arranged  for  the  sacramental  seasons,  but 
the  old  freedom  is  still  permitted  the  "prophets."''  The  fact 
that  wandering  prophets,  like  the  modern  evangelist,  often  gave 
trouble  to  the  regular  incumbents,  and  were  in  danger  some- 
times of  leading  the  church  to  despise  the  regular  officers,  is 
evident  from  XXI  :  1-3.  And  the  money-making  character  of 
some  of  the  wandering  prophets  is  also  evident.^  These  prophets 
were  still  the  memories  of  the  primitive  and  spontaneous  ethical 
enthusiasm  which,  however,  mingled,  according  to  modern 
standards  of  judgment,  with  hysteria  and  with  purely  psycho- 
pathological  elements,  was  yet  the  great  force  on  which  the 
movement  at  first  rested  for  success. 

These  early  prophets  spoke  from  a  subjective  conviction  that 
was  for  them  finality,  and  they  made  a  similar  impression  on 

>  4  :  8.  ^  ws  TiJTTi^j  Oeov.     4:11.  '  4  :  H  (cf-  Matt.  18  :  17). 

*  rfKetoi  effTj.     6  :  1-2. 

5  XaTpeia  ydp  iari  OeCiv  veKpdv.     6  :  3. 

6  g  .  j_2_  ^  10  :  7.  '11:6  and  9. 


122  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

their  hearers.  From  now  on,  however,  their  teaching  had  to 
conform  more  and  more  to  certain  standards,  rules,  and  previous 
ethical  judgments.  These  steadily  become  an  increasing  burden 
upon  prophetic  freedom.  We  saw  how  in  I  John  '  a  dogmatic 
statement  about  Jesus  Christ  begins  to  limit  theological  free- 
dom, and  now  also  certain  ethical  conceptions  and  postulates 
must  be  dogmatically  accepted  before  the  wandering  prophet 
can  obtain  a  hearing. 

In  the  "Teaching"  these  begin  to  find  their  formulation,  and 
the  "prophets"  are  watched  and  tested  whether  they  teach  in 
accordance  with  a  certain  standard,  and  these  standards  are  set 
by  established  officers.  Yet  the  prophetic  freedom  can  never  be 
completely  fettered,  and  again  and  again  we  shall  see  it  breaking 
the  bonds  of  conventional  ethical  estimates  and  seeking,  some- 
times rightly,  sometimes  wrongly,  to  readjust  conduct  to  life. 

In  chapter  XIII  elaborate  arrangements  are  made  for  the 
payment  of  the  prophets  from  the  "first-fruits,"  and  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  "high-priests,"^  thus  the  natural  but 
dangerous  reintroduction  of  the  priestly  conception  is  made  to 
go  hand  in  hand  with  the  organization  development.  And  as  a 
consequence  priestly  views  of  ethics  and  a  priestly  morality 
reassert  them — even  on  the  ground  Paul  had  most  prepared. 
An  elective  priesthood  is  an  anomaly,  but  as  yet  the  bishops  and 
deacons  were  elected,^  and  they  were  to  be  honored  with  the 
prophets  and  teachers.* 

The  time  of  coming  judgment  was  still  thought  of  as  at  hand, 
and  the  appearance  of  the  Lord  was  an  ethical  motive  of  first 
importance.  No  past  faith  or  conduct  would  be  of  any  value 
if  on  this  coming  the  watch  was  not  kept  "for  the  whole  of  your 
faith  shall  not  profit  you  except  in  the  last  season  ye  be  found 
perfect."  ^^  The  closing  vision  is  the  familiar  outline  of  apoca- 
lyptic  vision  as   in   Matt.   24:3-51,    where   one   can   hardly 

'  I  John  2  :  22. 

*  avTol  yhp  tlaiv  oZ  ipxteptU  vixwv.     13  :  3.     Comp.  (cxt  in  Harris. 
'  XeipoTov/i<xaT€  ovv  .  .  .  iiriaKbirovi  Kal  5iaK6vov%.      15  :    i. 

*  15  :  I.  '  if)  :  2. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      123 

resist  the  impression  that  here  as  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John  we 
have  a  Jewish  document  used  in  a  Christian  sense/  "Then 
shall  the  race  of  men  come  to  the  fire  of  testing,  and  many  shall 
be  offended  and  shall  perish;  but  they  who  endure  in  their  faith 
shall  be  saved  from  the  curse."  -  "Then  shall  the  world  see  the 
Lord  coming  upon  the  clouds  of  heaven."  ^ 

Thus  we  have  again  an  interesting  mingling  of  the  social 
catastrophe  as  a  hope  which  stayed  the  hearts  of  despairing 
sufferers  during  the  long  infancy  of  the  early  church,  and  which 
moulded  not  only  their  piety,  but  their  conceptions  of  right  and 
wrong,  of  the  values  of  family  life,  of  private  property,  and  of 
labor,  and  which  only  slowly  gave  way  as  an  ecclesiastical 
organization  because  so  identified  with  the  social  order  that  all 
thought  of  an  entire  upturning  of  it  ceased  to  be  attractive  to  the 
ruling  class. 

To  this  interesting  chapter  in  the  process  we  now  turn. 

The  Letter  0}  Polycarp.* — This  letter  may  be  with  fair  certainty 
accepted  as  genuine,  and  the  address,  "  Polycarp  and  the  presby- 
ters that  are  with  him  unto  the  church  of  God  which  sojourneth 
at  Philippi,"  is,  no  doubt,  ancient.  Hence  the  letter  must  have 
been  written  before  155,  when  Polycarp  suffered  martyrdom. 
The  letter  breathes  a  gentle  spirit  of  that  loving  freedom  charac- 
teristic of  Paul,  to  whose  letter  to  the  Philippians  witness  is 
bome.^  A  lamentable  failure  of  one  Valens,  a  presbyter,  calls 
attention  to  the  sin  of  covetousness — probably  Valens  had  mis- 
used the  confidence  of  the  church — and  great  emphasis  is  laid, 
therefore,  by  Polycarp  upon  the  evil  of  this  vice,  and  all  widows, 
deacons,  and  the  church  generally  are  warned  again  and  again 

*  Cf.  the  way  Justin  refers  to  the  Jewish  apocalyptic  literature  as  authoritative 
for  foretelling  the  future,  "Apologia  pro.  Chris.,"  p.  44. 

=  16  :  5.  3  j6  :  8. 

*  Greek  editions  are  those  of  Funk,  F.  K.,  with  Latin  translation,  1881; 
Lightfoot,  J.  B.,  "The  Apostolic  Fathers,"  vol.  II,  §  2,  with  notes  and  English 
translation.  Also  an  English  translation  in  the  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  I. 
A  German  translation  by  Mayer,  J.  C.  Besides  the  histories  of  Harnack  and 
Kriiger,  see  Ritschl's  "Entstehung  der  altkatholischen  Kirche,"  2d  ed.,  1857, 
pp.  584-600,  and  an  article  by  Cotterill,  J.  M.,  in  "The  Journal  of  Philosophy," 
XIX  (1891),  on  the  "Epistle  of  Polycarp."  »  §  3. 


124  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

against  the  love  of  money.  The  young  men  are  to  submit  them- 
selves to  the  presbyters  and  deacons  "as  to  God  and  Christ."  ' 
The  ethics  are  centred  about  the  duties  of  Christians  as  mem- 
bers or  officers  in  the  organization,  yet  hardly  more  so  than  in 
the  pastoral  letters  (canonical).  In  §  7  the  Johannine  formula 
for  acceptance  into  fellowship  is  given,  and  "  Every  one  who  shall 
not  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh,  is  Antichrist; 
and  whosoever  shall  not  confess  the  testimony  of  the  cross,  is  of 
the  devil."  But  the  letter  has  little  of  especial  interest  to  the 
student  of  ethics,  save  as  revealing  the  power  and  influence  of 
Paul,  even  when  his  central  thought  had  either  been  misappre- 
hended or  ignored;  and  as  also  showing  how  the  enthusiasm 
awakened  in  the  Christian  movement  formed  characters  of  such 
powerful  influence  as  was  that  of  Polycarp,  although  when  that 
enthusiasm  was  formulated  by  the  enthusiast,  the  tremendous 
distance  between  the  real  life  and  the  supposed  explanation  of 
that  life  becomes  at  once  apparent. 

II.      THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDIVIDUALIZATION 

Introduction. — Social  disorganization,  whether  in  the  modern 
industrial  competition  or  in  the  political  disruptions  of  a  conquer- 

LiTERATURE. — Baur,  F.  C:  "Das  Christenthum  und  die  christliche  Kirche 
der  drei  ersten  Jahrhunderte";  Tubingen,  1853. — Baur,  F.  C:  English  trans- 
lation by  Allan  Menzies:  "The  Church  History  of  the  First  Three  Centuries"; 
3ded.;  2  vols.;  London,  1878-1879. — Baur,  F.  C:  "Kirchengeschichte  der  drei 
ersten  Jahrhunderte";  3d  ed.;  Tubingen,  1863. — Baur,  F.  C:  "Die  christ- 
liche Gnosis";  Tubingen,  1835. — Lightfoot,  J.  B.:  "Epistles  to  the  Colossians 
and  Philemon";  1886. — Friedlander,  M.:  "Der  vorchristliche  jiidische  Gnos- 
ticismus";  Gottingen,  1898. — Harnack,  A.:  "Geschichte  der  altchristlichen 
Litteratur  bis  Eusebius";  1893;  I  Teil;  i  Halfte;  pp.  141-231. — Kriiger,  G.: 
"Geschichte  der  altchristlichen  Litteratur  in  den  ersten  drei  Jahrhunderten"; 
1895;  pp.  43-54;  English  translation  by  Chas.  R.  Gillett;  New  York,  1897; 
pp.  68-96. — Hilgenfeld,  A.:  "Die  Ketzergeschichte  der  Urchristentums" 
(particularly  the  second  book);  1884;  pp.  162^.,  230-283. — Harnack,  A.: 
"Dogmengeschichte";  3d  ed.;  1894  seq.  (particularly  vol.  I,  pp.  507-590, 
603-646,  and  692  seq.);  English  translation  by  Neil  Buchanan,  Boston,  1895- 
1900;  vol.  II,  pp.  231-319,  332-378;  vol.  Ill,  pp.  51  5^17. — Uebcrwcg-Heinze: 
"Geschichte  der  Philosophic";    1898;  vol.11,  §7,  pp.  32-46;   full  literature. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      125 

fng  imperialism,  produces  inevitably  strange  sects  and  fellow- 
ships whose  strength  is  that  they  minister  to  the  religious  hunger 
on  its  communal  side.  The  early  days  of  Roman  imperialism 
were  marked  by  restless  seeking  after  a  basis  for  communal 
unity,  and  it  expressed  itself  in  all  manner  of  societies,  guilds, 
fellowships,  and  cults.  The  strongest  bonds  have  ever  been  the 
religious  and  the  ethical.  The  state  religion  had  largely  broken 
down.  Philosophy  took  the  vacant  place  among  the  thoughtful 
and  the  more  educated;  all  manner  of  theosophies,  strange 
oriental  cosmologies,  ascetic  brotherhoods,  mysteries  borrowed 
from  various  sources  but  coming  to  the  Roman  world  from 
Greece,  and  many  weird  faiths,  filled  the  void  or  tried  to  fill  it 
among  the  less  informed. 

The  dying  pagan  enthusiasms  left  a  trail  of  fantastic  symbol- 
isms, and  a  Judaism  becoming  static  gave  the  world  almost 
equally  remarkable  reminders  of  its  religious  and  intellectual 
greatness.  Judaism  itself  was  divided.  There  was  the  common 
type  of  pharisaic  Judaism,  as  at  Jerusalem,  but  in  the  time  of 
Jesus,  as  in  all  time,  Judaism  had  readily  sought  points  of  contact 
with  foreign  thought,  and  proved  itself  hospitable  to  new  cul- 
tures. We  have  only  to  look  at  the  Judaism  of  our  own  day  to 
understand  how  all  shades  of  belief  were  found  between  the 
"liberal"  and  "orthodox"  Judaism  of  the  time  of  Jesus. 

Probably  the  Orient,  both  directly  and  through  Hellenism  in- 
directly, worked  upon  Judaism.  We  see  in  Josephus  and  in 
Philo  how  intelligent  Jews  sought  to  be  true  alike  to  the  lofty 
religious  and  ethical  instincts  of  the  race  and  at  the  same  time 
to  maintain  intellectual  self-respect.  For  it  is  harsh  and  his- 
torically untrue  to  think  of  Josephus  as  a  mere  flatterer  of 
Rome.  The  educated  Jew  was  forced  to  a  distinct  attitude 
toward  cultures  he  had  to  confess  were  in  some  respects  superior 
to  his  own,  while  still  maintaining  the  historical  significance  of 
what  he  knew  from  experience  to  be  an  unsurpassed  religious  life. 

When  Christianity  sprang  into  being  on  the  basis  of  an  un- 
shaken faith  in  the  resurrection  of  the  crucified  Jesus,  and  his 
teachings,  religious  and  ethical,  became  a  power  in  a  little  group, 


126  HISTORY   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

moving  men  and  women  to  the  most  devoted  life  of  loving  self- 
sacrifice,  and  to  an  enthusiasm  for  the  spread  of  their  faith, 
men  at  once  asked  what  was  this  faith.  An  answer  has  been 
hardly  given  yet,  and  it  would  be  absurd  to  think  of  the  little 
primitive  group  really  being  in  a  position  to  analyze  the  situation, 
and  give  in  a  series  of  dogmatic  propositions  an  intelligent 
philosophy  of  the  new-born  enthusiasm. 

There  were,  however,  worked  out  theosophies  only  too  eager 
to  claim  as  their  own  the  Christian  enthusiasm.  And  the  world 
regarded  the  movement  as  simply  a  new  Jewish  sect  among 
many  such  sects. ^  There  is  plenty  of  indirect  evidence  that  many 
would  have  even  gladly  accepted  the  Christian  organization  and 
given  it  recognition.^ 

There  was,  no  doubt,  a  common  vocabulary  of  religious 
enthusiasm,  and  the  early  Christianity  of  the  synoptic  gospels 
has  points  of  contact  with  religious  movements  from  which, 
however,  it  essentially  differed,  as  Essenism,  Ebionitism,  etc., 
and  perhaps  with  other  sects  of  which  we  now  know  nothing. 

The  looking  for  a  ''  parousia,''^  the  outward  rite  of  baptism,  a 
simple  love  meal,  the  initiation  ceremonies,  and  various  grades  of 
instruction  in  ethics  and  ritual,  all  belonged  to  the  common  re- 
ligious machinery  of  the  day.  We  see  the  same  process  going 
on  now.  New  sects  arising  in  the  United  States  take  over  with 
them  the  outward  forms  of  the  evangelical  movement  from 
which  they  spring  in  so  far  as  these  do  not  actually  contradict 
the  special  teaching  of  the  new  movement. 

It  was  a  matter  of  great  moment  that  Christianity  should 
formulate  her  message  far  enough  to  disentangle  her  life  from 
religious  movements  which  employed  much  the  same  machinery 
but  had  different  aims. 

How  this  machinery  took  form  in  Judaism  we  are  unfortunately 
most  ignorant.     Beside  the  temple  had  grown  up  the  synagogue, 

'  Cf.  Justin  Martyr,  "Dialogue  with  Trypho,"  chap.  So,  and  the  seven  sects 
there  given. 

^  Cf.  Hilgenfeki,  A.:  "Die  Ketzergeschichte  der  Urchristenthums,"  1884, 
pp.  84-161. 


TPIE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      127 

alongside  the  priest  had  arisen  the  scribe  or  learned  theologian, 
baptism  had  taken  its  place  beside  circumcision,  prayers  took 
the  place  of  sacrifice,  but  how  this  all  happened  we  do  not  know. 
It  is  simply  evidence  of  the  power  of  adaptation  in  Judaism  to 
circumstances. 

Jesus  was  a  Jew  and  died  as  one,  so  that  it  was  inevitable  that 
sooner  or  later  Jewish  sects  should  see  in  the  teaching  of  his 
followers  something  of  their  own  ideals.  And  on  the  other 
hand  Paul's  deliberate  universalism  suggested  to  every  Oriental- 
Hellenistic  cult  a  possible  ally. 

The  struggle  for  a  unified  ethical  ideal  is  therefore  no  simple 
struggle  between  a  Pauline  and  Petrine  party  as  the  brilliant 
and  still  useful  work  of  Baur  would  suggest.^  The  syncretism 
of  Christianity  is  far  more  complex  than  a  simple  compromise 
between  these  two  forces. 

The  foundation  for  Christian  ethics  was  laid  deeply  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Yet  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  the  influence  of  the 
narrow  Judaism  was  almost  nothing.^ 

The  sense  of  continuity  with  Judaism  did  indeed  give  rise  to 
some  sectarian  ethical  ideals  whose  influence  was,  however, 
small.  In  search  after  an  historical  ideal  the  early  church  went 
rightly  to  the  Old  Testament,  but  she  needed  to  interpret  those 
pages  for  herself.  We  must  glance  at  some  misinterpretations. 
Among  them  were 

The  Ehionites. — In  Irenaeus's  account  of  this  heresy  ^  one  sees 
that  in  his  day  those  sectarians  were  neither  feared  nor  much 

^  It  is  constantly  tempting  in  reading  Ziegler's  most  attractive  but  misleading 
"History  of  Christian  Ethics"  to  enter  into  discussion  with  him  where  he  has 
been  misled  by  an  hypothesis  which  in  its  original  form  has  been  practically 
abandoned  by  all  schools  of  ecclesiastical  history.     But  space  forbids. 

-  Cf.  Ritschl,  A. :  "  Die  Entstehung  der  altkatholischen  Kirche,"  2d  ed.,  Bonn, 
1857,  pp.  301-484;  Harnack,  A.:  "Dogmengeschichte,"  I,  3d  ed.,  pp.  271-300. 

^  "Adv.  Haer.,"  I,  26,  2  and  III,  21,  i,  where  he  says:  "Qui  autem  dicuntur 
Ebionaii."  i.  Use  only  Matthew's  Gospel.  2.  Denounce  Paul  as  recusant  to 
the  law.  "Et  apostolum  Paulum  recusant  apostolum  eum  legis  dicentes."  3. 
Maintained  such  Jewish  customs  as  circumcision.  4.  Looked  to  Jerusalem  as 
the  House  of  God,  "Quasi  domus  sit  dei."  5.  Deny  the  deity  of  Christ.  6. 
Deny  the  virgin  birth. 


128  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

opposed,  and  what  we  know  of  their  teachings  *  suggests  just 
such  an  interpretation  of  Jesus'  teaching  as  would  inevitably 
spring  up  in  the  early  days  among  those  influenced  by  Christian- 
ity in  the  mixed  Jewish  population.  They,  like  the  Essenes,  may 
have  been  older  than  the  Christian  church. 

The  Essenes. — Against  the  Essenes  we  find  no  polemic  in  the 
New  Testament  writings,  but  far  from  this  suggesting  some 
connection  between  them  and  Jesus  it  surely  points  the  other 
way,  and  implies  that  they  lay  altogether  apart  from  the  field 
of  early  Christian  interest.^ 

The  number  of  the  Essenes  seems  to  have  been  exceedingly 
small.  It  is  given  by  Philo  as  only  four  thousand,  and  the  verdict 
of  Schurer  is  certainly  to  be  accepted  that  in  them  on  the  basis 
of  an  extreme  Pharisaism,  Hellenistic,  and  more  especially 
Pythagorean  influences  are  to  be  seen  working  out  their  effects. 
The  contrast  between  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  the  Essenes 
could  hardly  be  more  complete,  and  the  likenesses  between 
Essenism  as  described  by  Philo  ^  to  Christianity  are  due  probably 
more  to  the  fact  that  both  were  modified  by  the  same  Hellenistic 
influence  than  that  the  one  borrowed  from  the  other. 

The  ethics  of  Essenism  were  essentially  formal  and  legal,  that 

'  C/.  Hilgenfeld:  "Die  Ketzergeschichte  des  Urchristentums,"  1884,  pp. 
421-446. 

*  Hilgenfeld,  A.:  "Ketzergeschichte  des  Urchristenthums,"  Leipsic,  1884, 
pp.  87-149;  F.  C.  Conybeare:  art.  "Essenes,"  in  Hastings'  "Dictionary 
of  the  Bible,"  vol.  I,  1898,  pp.  767-772;  Ritschl,  A.:  "Entstehung  der 
altkatholischen  Kirche,"  2d  ed.,  Bonn,  1857,  pp.  179-203;  Harnack,  A.: 
"Dogmengeschichte,"  3d  ed.,  vol.  I,  p.  232,  note  2;  Schurer,  E.:  "Geschichte 
des  jiidischen  Volkes,"  vol.  II,  3d  ed.,  1898,  pp.  556-584,  vol.  II,  4th  ed.,  1907, 
pp.  651-680  (English  translation,  §  2,  vol.  II,  pp.  188-218,  with  very  full  litera- 
ture given);  Uhlhorn,  G.:  art.  "Essener,"  in  Herzog-Hauck  " Realencyklo- 
padie,"  vol.  V,  1898,  pp.  524-527,  English  translation,  New  York,  1909,  vol.  IV, 
pp.  179-180;  Jiilicher,  G.  A.:  art.  "Essenes,"  in  Cheyne's  "Encyclopaedia 
Biblica,"  1901;  Lightfoot,  J.  B.:  "Epistles  to  the  Colossians  and  to  Philemon," 
2d  ed.,  1876,  pp.  349-419;  Zeller,  Edward:  "Die  Philosophic  der  Griechen," 
III,  2,  277-338,  4th  ed.,  1903,  pp.  307-384. 

*  "Quod  omnes  probus  liber,"  12  f.,  and  in  a  quotation  by  Eusebius,  "Praepar. 
Evang.,"  VIII,  ii,  12  (§§  380,  381,  vol.  XXI  of  Migne,  "Pat.  Grsc").  "Hjec 
Philo  in  'Apologia,'  Cujus  item,  in  eo  libro,  quo  probus  omnes  liberos  esse  de- 
fcndit  haec  verba  sunt,"  taken  probably  from  the  lost  Apolog}'. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      129 

of  Jesus  inward  and  free.  The  Essenes  were  rendered  impure 
by  contact  with  even  inferior  members  of  their  own  order; 
Jesus  mingled  freely  with  publicans  and  sinners.  The  Essenes 
laid  stress  on  countless  washings ;  Jesus  neither  himself  baptized 
nor  permitted  his  disciples  to  be  rebuked  for  eating  with  un- 
washed hands ;  what  came  out  of  the  mouth  defiled  the  man  and 
not  what  he  ate  or  drank.  For  the  Essenes  angelology  was  an 
essential  element  in  their  teaching,  for  Jesus  it  was  simply  the 
acceptance  of  popular  speech.  The  Essenes  were  dualistic  and 
ascetic;  Jesus  based  his  whole  view  of  the  world  on  the  oneness  of 
God  and  his  complete  control  of  the  physical  world,  his  footstool; 
and  so  little  was  he  an  ascetic  that  men  called  him  a  wine- 
bibber  and  boon  companion  of  sinners.  Jesus  frequented  the 
temple  from  which  the  Essenes  were  excluded.  If  the  passages 
from  Josephus  are  accepted  as  accurate,^  the  contrast  is  even 
more  striking,  for  there  the  Essenes  are  said  to  worship  the 
sun  and  to  maintain  sexual  usages  completely  excluded  by  the 
ethics  of  Jesus. 

Gnosticism. — Very  different  must  the  verdict  be  when  the 
question  is  asked  what  influence  had  Hellenistic  oriental  specu- 
lation upon  the  growing  Christian  church.  Within  the  national 
limits  that  speculation  had  worked  already  with  characteristic 
eroding  force  upon  Jewish  thought  (Philo  and  Alexandrian 
Judaism).  It  was  not  possible  for  a  force  so  alive  and  so  at- 
tractive not  to  seek  out  the  Christian  enthusiasm  as  a  fitting 
field  for  propaganda.  New  schools  of  thought  have  a  common 
bond  in  the  taboo  of  older  and  more  highly  organized  and  in- 
trenched systems  which  resent  their  intrusion.  There  is  a 
tendency  on  the  part  of  the  new  movements  to  try  and  work 
together  against  the  old.  There  was  already  at  this  time  a 
well-defined  religious  language  and  world  of  thought.  Chris- 
tianity had  in  some  way  to  be  related  to  it;  and  Gnosticism 
was  primarily  the  perfectly  natural  and  indeed  necessary  attempt 
to  rationalize  the  primary  Christian  enthusiasm,  and  to  fix  in- 

'  Cf.,  however,  T.  K.  Cheyne's  note  2  on  §  5,  art.  "Essenes,"  in  "Encyclo- 
pedia Biblica." 


I30  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

telligently  its  relationship,  on  the  one  hand  to  the  Judaism,  out 
of  which  it  sprang,  and  on  the  other  to  the  Syrian-Hellenic 
synthetic  religious  world  into  which  it  came. 

The  attempt  to  fix  the  relation  of  Judaism  to  the  Hellenic 
culture  had  begun  before  Christ.*  Indeed  in  the  "wisdom  lit- 
erature"  we  see  already  the  beginnings  of  an  ethical  Gnosticism, 
and  in  Paul  there  are  the  beginnings  of  the  inevitable  adjust- 
ment of  Christianity  to  the  intelligence  of  an  outward  world  of 
philosophic  thought.  As  we  have  seen,  Paul  was  Jewish  in  all 
his  fundamental  thinking  and  only  lightly  touched  by  the  Hellen- 
istic culture  whose  tongue  he  employed  and  amid  which  he  had 
grown  up.  All  the  more  necessary  was  it  that  he  should  offset 
the  "gnosis"  of  the  Hellenistic  culture  by  the  better  gnosis, 
which  with  Paul  is  a  charismatic  impartation.^  Here  Paul 
distinguishes  between  the  "word  of  wisdom"  ^  and  the  word  of 
knowledge,^  or  rather,  perhaps,  he  parallels  the  "wisdom"  of  the 
Old  Testament  with  the  "Gnosticism"  after  which  the  Greeks 
sought.  And  in  Colossians  he  enters  upon  a  controversy  with 
those  who  would  too  closely  identify  Christianity  with  a  system  of 
world  speculation.  For  those  who  see  in  Paul  the  beginnings 
of  such  an  identification  of  Christianity  with  explanations  of  the 
world^  miss  the  point  that  what  with  Paul  was  at  most  a  second- 
ary interest  was  for  Gnosticism  the  essence  of  the  religious  life. 

As  early  as  the  first  letter  of  John  '^  the  church  began  to  hedge 
her  teachers  about  with  formulae  which  should,  as  we  have  seen, 
distinguish  them  from  false  teachers,  and  many  of  these  were 
undoubtedly  the  Gnostic  system-builders.  We  are,  unfortu- 
nately, almost  entirely  dependent  upon  the  extracts  and  quota- 
tions given  by  orthodox  opponents  of  Gnosticism  for  our  knowl- 
edge of  its  life,  hope,  and  teaching. 

What  sort  of  picture  would  we  get  of  Protestant  ideal  aims  and 
ethical  enthusiasms  if  all  we  knew  of  them  were  from  the  Roman 

'  Cf.  Fricdliindcr:    "Der  vorchristlichc  judischc  Gnosticismus,"  i8q8. 
2 1    Cor.    12:8-9.  ^Xdyos  <ro(plas.  * 'K6yos  yvdio-eus. 

*  Cf.  A.  Julicher,  in  "Encyclopa,dia  Biblica,"  art.  "Gnosis." 
"  I  John  2  :  22. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      131 

Catholic  writers  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries? 
Even  when  the  apologists  sought  to  be  fair  they  were  quite 
incapable  of  calm  objectivity  in  their  accounts.  Happily  a  few 
Coptic  translations  have  come  down  to  us,  giving  a  few  frag- 
ments of  ancient  Gnostic  literature,  and  abundantly  revealing 
the  fantastic  character  of  all  this  early  Gnostic  teaching.  An 
example  may  be  seen  in 

The  Ophites}— R\^Y>'^\yiws  groups  under  the  name  Ophites 
or  Naasseni  ^  a  number  of  sects  whose  doctrines,  as  he  por- 
trays them  to  us,  and  as  we  find  them  in  Irenaeus  and  in  the 
few  fragments  of  writings  still  surviving,  seem  to  have  been  a 
strange  mingling  of  heathen  elements  and  Greek  philosophy 
with  Christian  ethical  inspirations  and  enthusiasms.  What 
probably  bound  them  together  was  the  resistance  to  the  growing 
pressure  of  the  ecclesiastical  organization.  They  demanded, 
evidently,  room  for  boundless  speculation.  They  were,  as 
Harnack  justly  observes,  the  heralds  of  the  coming  theologians. 
They  felt  the  power  of  the  ethical  inspiration  of  Jesus  as  seen  in 
the  church,  but  they  were  also  under  the  spell  of  cosmogonies 
and  views  of  the  world  which  they  felt  must  be  intellectually  uni- 
fied. The  symbolic  interpretation  of  the  myths  of  polytheism 
had  been  begun  by  Plato,  the  Greek  mysteries  had  still  further 
developed  this  escape  from  vulgar  idolatry,  now  the  Old  Testa- 
ment had  to  submit  at  the  hand  of  friend  and  foe  to  the  same 
process.  In  this  attempted  synthesis  much  that  seems  to  us 
absurd  had  then  real  meaning.  The  vague  longings,  the  im- 
perfect sciences,  the  crude  but  often  searching  inquiries  into 
nature  and  history  find  their  expression  in  mystic  hymns  *  and 

•Hippolytus:  "Refutation  of  all  heresies"  (xari  Trao-wv  aJp^o-ewv  e\e7xos), 
book  V,  chaps.  1-23;  Irenaeus:  "Adversus  Haereses,"  book  I,  chap.  30; 
Clement  of  Alexandria:  " Stromateis,"  book  III,  1-4,  and  book  IV,  12-13. 

'  From  6(pK  or  Ft"^  *'•  e.,  serpent. 

*  Hippolytus  has  preserved  to  us  (V,  5)  a  hymn,  the  text  of  which  is  corrupt, 
but  of  which  Harnack  ("  Sitzungsberichte  der  K.  P.  Akademie  der  Wissen- 
schaften,"  1902,  Anhang  II,  pp.  542-545)  has  given  a  critical  version;  following 
this  text,  save  in  two  small  particulars,  the  following  is  a  rude  rendering:  "Nomos 
was  the  producer  of  the  all,  the  Prostitos  (or  firstling)  was  Nous,  the  second  was 
of  the  Prostitos,  chaos  outpoured,  the  third  was  Psyche  born  of  both,  fulfilling 


132  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

secret  rites.  These  rites  and  hymns  sought  to  express  the  rela- 
tion of  God  to  evil,  of  the  redemption  of  Jesus  to  the  sense  of 
forgiveness,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  content  to  the  loved 
memories  of  religious  forms  whose  real  meaning  was  either 
lost  or  deliberately  rejected. 

The  ethical  weaknesses  of  these  fantastic  speculations  lie  on 
their  face.  The  world-view  is  dark  and  despondent.  Re- 
demption is  either  magical  and  mechanical  or  is  a  matter  of  in- 
tellectual perception  and  not  of  ethical  struggle.  Death  is  the 
evil  that  must  be  overcome  and  not  sin.  Ignorance  and  not 
moral  depravity,  weakness  and  not  will,  are  the  subjects  of 
interest.  The  allegorizing  of  old  impure  rituals  did  not  really 
take  away  the  superstitious  debasing  character  inherent  in  them, 
and  the  ignorant  accepted  the  superstitions  and  ignored  the 
allegorizing  morality. 

Indeed  we  may  see  in  Irenseus  and  Hippolytus  how,  in  fact, 
Gnosticism  was  bringing  the  superstition  of  Egypt,  Phrygia, 
Assyria,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome  under  allegorized  forms  into 
the  life  of  the  early  church,  already  too  superstitious  on  its  own 
account,  and  although  all  were  not  evil,  many  of  these  sects  were 
actually  bad  and  debasing.'    It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to 

the  law  (Harnack  takes  ip-ya^ofUv-n  as  passive,  and  apparently  omits  vbiu>v; 
Macmahon  translates  'received  its  law  of  toil').  Hence  in  the  form  of  a  deer 
she  (Psyche  the  soul),  trembling,  struggles  with  the  clinging  death,  (his)  oppor- 
tunity. Now  having  mastery  she  sees  the  light,  now  in  misery  plunged  she 
wails,  now  bewailed  she  rejoices,  now  being  judged  she  dies,  now  the  unfortunate 
one  sunk  in  misery,  wandering  is  canght  in  a  labyrinth!  Then  says  Jesus, 
'See  Father!  a  being  sought  out  by  evils  far  from  the  (life-giving)  breath  wanders 
on  earth,  she  seeks  to  flee  from  bitter  chaos,  and  knows  not  whence  to  fly.  On 
account  of  this  one  send  me  Father,  having  the  seals  I  will  descend,  I  will 
traverse  all  the  ages  {alCJvai),  I  will  reveal  all  mysteries,  I  will  manifest  (i-iriM^w) 
the  forms  of  gods,  the  secret  things  of  the  holy  way  I  will  hand  down— called 
gnosis." 

'  The  religious  customs  that  seem  to  us  so  strange  and  horrible,  such  as 
prostitution  in  the  temple  and  jus  primer  noctis,  were  survivals  of  past  moralities. 
In  early  tribal  life  at  a  certain  stage  it  was  immoral  for  a  woman  to  refuse  herself 
to  the  men  of  her  marriage  group,  and  as  sexual  cxclusiveness  arose,  prostitution 
in  the  temple  and  many  other  strange  customs  became  the  price  paid  for  this 
cxclusiveness.  The  religious  character  of  the  price  paid  rendered  it  permanent 
long  after  the  origin  had  been  forgotten. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      133 

attempt  to  describe  in  detail  the  Peratce,  the  Sethians,  the 
Cainites,  the  sects  founded  by  Simon  and  Justinus.  Some  were 
evidently  interested  in  adjusting  Christian  inspiration  to  the 
older  heathen  cults,  some  to  the  Old  Testament,  some  to  Hellenic 
speculation.  Had  we  fuller  material  a  division  of  Gnostic  sects 
might,  perhaps,  be  made  on  this  basis,  but  it  is  often  hard  to  say 
how  far  we  are  dealing  in  the  pages  of  Hippolytus,  Irenaeus,  or 
TertuUian  with  caricatures  and  how  far  with  actual  faiths. 

In  some  of  the  Gnostic  sects  Jehovah  is  thought  of  as  an  actual 
evil  demon,  in  some  as  righteous  but  not  merciful,  in  some  as 
good  but  limited.  According  to  some  the  world  was  formed 
against  the  will  of  the  Highest  God;  *  according  to  others  it 
represents  a  lower  but  necessary  state  of  existence.^ 

Practically,  in  all  systems,  speculation  seeks  to  mediate  cos- 
mologically  between  the  finite  and  the  infinite,  and  to  identify 
goodness  with  the  infinite  and  evil  with  the  finite.  This  struggle 
with  the  problem  of  evil  gives  Gnostic  its  significance  to  the 
ethical  student.  The  early  church  never  fully  overcame  the  in- 
trusion of  the  dualistic  and  magical  explanation  of  evil,  and  as 
the  allegory  in  exegesis  still  haunts  the  theological  study  in  re- 
fined form,  so  in  subtle  dress  oriental  dualism  still  casts  its 
shadows  over  Christian  explanations  of  evil.  At  the  same  time, 
the  attempt,  fanciful  as  may  seem  the  outcome,  to  reconcile  the 
existence  of  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  with  the 
actual  facts  of  sin  and  misery  showed  a  deeper  grasp  of  the  in- 
ward difficulties  of  a  religious  philosophy  than  do  some  of  the 
dogmatic  orthodoxies  of  a  growing  but  stiffening  Catholic 
church. 

Valentinus'  in  particular  may  seem  in  the  pictures  of  the  eccle- 

'  Cf.  Irenaeus,  "Adv.  Haer.,"  II,  2,  1-6.       ^  iren^us,  "Adv.  Hasr.,"  II,  8,  1-2. 

*  Came  from  Alexandria  to  Rome  under  the  bishopric  of  Hyginus,  and  re- 
mained for  a  long  time  in  connection  with  RomC;  establishing  a  school  of  which 
Ptolemaeus  was  the  head.  Irenaeus,  "Adv.  Haer.,"  I,  2.  TertuUian,  "Adv. 
Hser.,"  I,  cap.  4,  etc.  ("Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  503-520).  Besides 
the  standard  histories,  see  the  admirable  article  by  Preuschen,  E.,  in  Herzog- 
Hauck:  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  20,  pp.  395-417;  and  Hilgenfeld,  A. :  "Ketzer- 
geschichte  des  Urchristenthums,"  pp.  283-316. 


134  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

siasticisms  of  his  day  an  exceedingly  absurd  teacher,  more  es- 
pecially if  we  are  to  believe  Irena^us  and  Tertullian,  and  think 
of  him  as  inventing  out  of  his  own  fantasy  the  "triads"  and 
"monads"  and  "syzygies,"  the  "aeons"  and  the  "ogdoads" 
which  seem  to  us  so  meaningless  and  fanciful.  But  this  is  a  false 
conception  of  the  entire  situation.  Valentinus  found  these  things 
as  much  a  part  of  an  intense  ethically  religious  life  as  washings 
and  circumcision  and  feasts  were  part  of  the  intense  ethical  life 
of  Judaism;  and  they  were  linked  with  antiquity.  Indeed  they 
were  linked  with  an  antiquity  that  rivalled  Judaism.  In  default 
of  other  and  more  effective  measures  of  truthfulness,  the  antiquity 
of  an  opinion  was  the  standard  by  which  it  was  measured.  We 
see  that  in  the  way  the  "fathers"  are  forever  citing  the  past 
traditions,  and  we  see  it  in  the  way  the  Old  Testament  was 
clung  to  with  feverish  anxiety  lest  Christianity  should  be  charged 
with  being  unhistoric. 

The  Gnostic  heresy  was  evidently  the  desperate  attempt  to 
weave  together  two  mighty  impulses  whose  fundamental  notes 
were  the  ethical  longings  of  religious  hearts.  The  one  was  the 
oriental  despondent  dualism  of  India  and  Persia,  mingled  with 
elements  from  Thrace  and  Greece,  and  bound  together  in  the 
weird  conglomerates  of  the  mysteries  of  Asia  Minor  with 
Ephesus  as  chief  centre.*  The  other  was  the  new  fresh  en- 
thusiasm of  the  Christian  church,  despairing  also  of  the  present 
aeon,  but  looking  forward  with  splendid  faith  to  a  new  aeon  in 
which  should  dwell  righteousness.  Valentinus  evidently  saw  in 
Christianity,  as  he  utiderstood  it,  the  new  and  long-expected 
revelation  or  reincarnation  of  the  light-bringing  Logos.  Even 
amidst  the  ignorant  caricatures  of  the  ecclesiastical  opponents 
we  see  how  he  expected  in  Christianity  to  find  East  and  West, 
Asia  and  Rome  at  last  united  on  the  basis  of  an  exceedingly 
elastic  symbolism  in  one  religion  sweeping  in  all  the  nations. 
For  this  synthesis  the  allegorical  method,  built  up  in  order  to 
explain  away  vulgar  heathenism,  could  also  be  used  to  explain 

'  CJ.  King,  C.  W.,  "The  Gnostics  and  Their  Remains,"  1864,  pp.  1-33. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      135 

away  alike  vulgar  Judaism  and  the  vulgar  literal  and  narrow 
Christianity  of  the  day. 

The  view  of  the  world  thus  gained  seems  to  us  childish,  but 
all  the  views  of  the  world  of  that  day  seem  so  to  us. 

Tertullian  lived  in  a  demon-peopled  world,  surrounded  by  the 
most  fantastic  miracles,  amid  the  most  extravagant  superstitions, 
and  only  guarded  by  the  magic  of  sacramental  water  and 
sacramental  rites  from  present  peril  and  everlasting  death.^ 
Between  the  neo-heathenism  of  the  rising  Catholic  church  and 
the  fairly  full-fledged  heathenism  of  Valentinus  it  was,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  only  a  question  of  degree.  But  what  was  it  that  gave 
force  to  the  Gnostic  movement  and  made  it  under  Valentinus, 
Ptolemaeus,  Basilides,  Isidor,  and  Marcion  one  of  the  most  liv- 
ing antagonists  the  Christian  church  had  ?  Very  suggestive  is 
Hamack's  exposition  ^  of  the  letter  of  Ptolemaeus  to  Flora,  a 
Gnostic  teacher  to  a  devout  Gnostic  Christian,  who  is  troubled 
by  the  law  of  Moses.  The  letter  is  preserved  to  us,  in  fairly 
good  text,  by  Epiphanius  ("  Contra  Hser."  2;^,  8-12,  ed. 
Dindorfius,  vol.  II),  and  was  written  about  160  A.  D.  We 
have  in  it  the  key  to  the  Gnostic  symbolism.  The  ethics  of  Jesus 
and  his  view  of  God,  as  Hamack  justly  points  out,  are  the 
standard  by  which  the  Old  Testament  is  judged,  and  by  that 
standard  it  is  divided  into  three  parts.  One  part  is  from  God, 
for  Jesus  says,  in  the  beginning  God  made  man  and  wife:  one 
part  is  from  Moses,  for  Jesus  says  Moses  for  the  hardness  of  your 
hearts,  and  one  part  is  pure  human  tradition,  for  Jesus  says, 
"Ye  have  made  the  word  of  God  of  none  effect  through  your 
traditions,"  but  even  then  Ptolemaeus  goes  on  to  show  that  the 
lofty  character  of  God  revealed  by  Jesus  Christ  as  belonging  to 
the  Eternal  Father  could  not  belong  to  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old 
Testament,  hence  that  this  Jehovah  is  the  demiurge  of  creation, 
just  and  righteous,  but  not  the  Eternal  Redeeming  Father  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

'  Cf.   Tertullian,  "De  Baptismo." 

'  "  Sitzungsberichte  der  K.  P.  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften,"  May  15,  1902, 
pp.  505-545- 


136  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

We  see  at  once  the  ethical  problems  with  which  Gnosticism 
struggled.  It  was  because  of  their  more  perfect  perception  of 
the  religious  value  of  the  conception  of  God  as  Jesus  revealed 
him  that  made  the  acceptance  of  the  growing  Catholic  theology 
difficult.  It  was  just  because  of  the  growing  valuation  of 
antiquity  ^  as  a  standard  of  truth  that  made  the  ancient  symbol- 
isms of  Persia  and  Asia  Minor  attractive,  and  it  was  because 
more  and  more  the  original  ethical  and  religious  enthusiasm  that 
looked  for  another  aeon  was  being  dimmed  by  intellectual  sub- 
stitutions for  it,  that  Gnosticism  was  a  formidable  force  with 
which  the  growing  church  had  to  battle. 

It  was  not,  as  some  have  supposed,  that  Gnosticism  presented 
a  break  with  the  historical  continuity,  but  that  it  presented  the 
wrong  continuity.  As  over  against  Marcion  and  Ptolema;us 
the  Catholic  church  asserted  her  continuity  with  the  religious 
life  of  Judaism.  To  this  day  this  attitude  includes  strange  con- 
tradictions and  quite  arbitrary  use  of  the  powers  of  non-observa- 
tion, but  the  instinct  was  truthful.  The  ethics  of  Judaism  and 
not  of  the  Orient;  the  monism  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets 
and  not  even  the  spiritualized  polytheism  of  India,  Babylon,  or 
Asia  Minor;  the  optimism  of  the  New  Testament  and  not  the 
despondency  of  theosophy  were  to  win  in  the  encounter  which 
from  the  later  letters  of  Paul  until  the  council  of  Nicasa  gave 
color  to  the  whole  development  of  the  Christian  life.  For  in 
these  things  a  vital  Christianity  had  her  roots. 

Did  we  know  more  of  the  practical  ethics  of  the  Gnostics  we 
might  find  that  in  some  things  they  had  advanced  upon  the  every- 
day morality  of  the  official  church.  The  Essenes  denounced 
slavery,  and  the  Gnostics  were  evidently  under  the  influence  of 
Buddhist  pity  for  all  animal  life.  And  in  spite  of  the  bitterness 
of  the  attacks  made  by  Irena^us,  Hippolytus,  Tertullian,  and 
others  upon  Valentinus  and  the  Gnostics  generally,  it  was  their 
speculation  and  not  their  conduct  which  aroused  the  zealous 
hate  of  their  opponents.     In  fact  one  of  the  developments  of 

'  CJ.  Tertullian,  "  Adv.  Ha;r.,"  chaps.  29,  30. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      137 

Gnosticism  was  an  attempt  to  reform  the  church  in  the  interests 
of  an  extreme  ascetic  morality. 

Marcion  *  distinctly  stood  for  the  oriental  dualistic  world- 
view.  This  appears  not  simply  in  his  sympathy  with  Gnosticism, 
but  in  his  emphasis  upon  a  strict  asceticism  and  a  morality  that 
precluded  any  mingling  with  the  world.  Wine,  the  theatre,  all 
amusements,  and  the  delights  of  home  were  forbidden.  Marcion 
read  into  Paul  this  oriental  asceticism,  and  in  the  interests  of 
his  redemptive  theory  rejected  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  as 
Judaistic  and  legal. 

In  this  god  he  saw  an  antagonistic  principle  to  the  Redeeming 
God.  Matter  is  inherently  the  seat  of  evil,  and  redemption  is 
freedom  from  the  flesh.  He  was  not  a  system-builder  like  the 
Gnostics,  and  his  ethics  are  stern  with  self-renunciation.  He 
favored  martyrdom  and  looked  to  a  gradual  winning  of  the 
whole  Christian  church  to  his  views.  He  organized  his  church 
on  the  basis  of  the  first  canon  of  sacred  writings,  which,  however, 
he  arbitrarily  chose  and  mutilated.  His  dislike  of  legal  Judaism 
was  excessive. 

Marcion  sought  to  exclude  even  Abraham  from  the  inheritance 
with  the  saints,^  and  in  very  sharp  criticism  he  tried  to  strip  the 
ecclesiastical  canon  of  the  elements  he  disliked,  and  which  he 
regarded  as  a  corruption  of  the  faith. 

It  was  no  mean  attempt,  but  of  course  lacked  all  critical  instru- 
ments.    The  excisions  were  arbitrary  and  subjective  and  as 

*  Marcion  was  a  rich  ship-owner  who  as  a  Christian  in  Rome  about  139  at- 
tempted to  reform  the  local  church.  In  144  he  was  expelled  and  founded  his  own 
church,  which  lasted  on  until  the  sixth  century.  He  was  deeply  interested  in 
Cerdo  the  Gnostic,  but  his  system  is  widely  apart  in  many  ways  from  Gnosticism. 
For  literature,  see  Harnack:  "Lehrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte,"vol.  I,  3d  ed., 
1894,  pp.  254-271,  English  translation,  I,  pp.  266-285,  and  his  article  in  "Zeit- 
schrift  fiir  wissenschatliche  Theologie,"  XIX,  1876,  pp.  80-120,  "Beitrage  zur 
Geschichte  der  marcionitischen  Kirchen";  MuUer,  Karl:  " Kirchengeschichte," 
I,  1892,  pp.  75-77;  Moller,  W. :  "Lehrbuch  der  Kirchengeschichte,"  2d  ed., 
1902,  I,  pp.  158-161;  English  translation  of  ist  ed.,  I,  1892,  pp.  148-150.  The 
chief  source  is  Tertullian  versus  Marcion  and  the  attacks  of  the  apologists 
Justin  and  Irenaeus.     Cf.  McGiffert's  "Eusebius,"  p.  184,  note  24. 

^  Irenaeus,  "  Adv.  Haer.,"  book  IV,  chap.  8. 


138  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

uncritical  as  the  acceptance  of  the  official  church.  Moreover 
the  instinct  of  the  official  church  was  in  the  main  truer,  as  we 
can  now  see,  to  the  great  ethical  verities  than  was  the  clever  but 
speculative  and  headstrong  radical.  In  various  ways  the  ori- 
ental character  of  the  Gnostic  thinking  expressed  itself.  Marcion 
is  accused  by  Hippolytus  especially  of  "sorcery"  and  "sleight- 
of-hand,"  and  of  carrying  on  "operations  by  demons,"^  and 
dealing  with  the  eucharistic  cup  as  a  cup  of  enchantments.  So 
also  Carpocrates  and  his  followers  "practise  magical  arts  and 
incantations,  philter  and  love  potions."  ^  The  Gnostics  are 
accused  in  the  same  chapter  of  antinomianism.  No  doubt 
extreme  libertinism  and  extreme  asceticism  marked  various 
schools.  At  the  same  time  it  is  dangerous  to  accept  the  asser- 
tions of  ancient  bigoted  orthodoxy  passing  judgment  some  time 
after  those  thus  condemned  were  dead  and  unable  to  reply.  It 
is  interesting  for  instance  to  contrast  the  judgment  of  Clement  of 
Alexandria  on  Basilides  and  Valentinus,  who  probably  actually 
knew  by  personal  contact  what  they  taught,  with  the  accounts  of 
later  critics.^  The  firm  rejection  of  their  teachings  is  at  the 
same  time  temperate,  and  even  in  the  frank  dealings  with  the 
peculiar  views  on  sexual  matters  in  book  III  there  is  evidence  of 
a  desire  to  understand  and  do  justice  to  the  divergent  and  false 
teaching. 

Bardesanes  is  one  of  the  few  whose  views  on  the  philosophical 
question  is  given  us.  He  stood  for  free-will  as  over  against  the 
mechanical  views  that  crass  dualism  logically  involves,  but  on 
the  whole  such  discussions  were  probably  carried  on  in  too 
symbolic  a  fashion  to  have  gready  affected  the  actual  thinking  of 
the  church.  Those  who  were  struggling  for  church  unity  on  the 
basis  of  submission  to  an  ecclesiastical  machine  found  their 
strongest  foe  in  the  intellectual  independence  of  Hellenistic 
Gnosticism.  If  the  teachings  of  Marcion  were  so  utterly  without 
historic  basis,  and  were  so  entirely  personal  as  the  later  apologists 

'  Book  VI,  34.  ^  Irenaeus,  "  Adv.  Hacr.,"  book  I,  25,  3. 

'  Clement  of  Alexandria,  "  Stromateis,"  book  II,  3,  6,  8;  book  III,  1-4;  book 
IV,  12. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      139 

are  fond  of  making  them  appear,  it  is  very  remarkable  how  large 
a  space  he  and  his  teachings  take  in  the  early  apology  of  the 
growing  Catholic  church. 

If  the  attractive  suggestion  of  McGiffert  ^  is  accepted,  we 
owe  the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed  in  its  older  form  to  the  effort 
of  the  Roman  church  to  counteract  the  influence  of  Marcion 
and  his  followers.  We  certainly  have  in  the  pseudo-Clementine 
fragments^  skilful  attempts  to  offset  in  the  name  of  Clement 
the  dangerous  division  threatened  by  Marcion.  The  "Recog- 
nitions"^ and  the  "Homilies"  are  certainly  the  remainders  of 
probably  a  much  larger  literature.  For  our  purpose  the 
question  of  the  literary  dependence  of  the  two  on  each  other  or 
on  a  third  source  is  of  little  importance.  We  see  here  reflected 
an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  rapidly  organizing  church  to  fight 
fire  with  fire,  to  oppose  Marcion  and  his  false  gnosis  by  portray- 
ing Peter  and  the  true  gnosis. 

Marcion  claimed  Paul  as  his  authority,  so  Paul  is  ignored, 
though  not  attacked,  as  where  the  Gentiles  are  represented  as 
"wholly  without  a  champion,"  *  for  Simon  the  magician  is 
rather  Marcion  than  Paul,  and  the  warning  against  any  teacher 
coming  without  a  letter  from  James  in  Jerusalem,  or  whomso- 
ever would  come  after  him,^  would  not  affect  Paul,  but  did  affect 
the  Marcionite  teachers. 

^McGi£fert,  A.  C,  "The  Apostles'  Creed:  its  Origin,  its  Purpose,  etc.," 
New  York,  1902. 

^  For  the  state  of  the  texts,  see  Harnack  and  Preuschen,  in  "  Geschichte  der 
Altchristlichen  Litteratur  bis  Eusebius  "  (1893),  Erster  Theil,  pp.  212-231. 

^"Recognitions."  'Aj'a7J'c6<reij.  Text  in  Migne,  "P.  G."  torn.  I,  cols.  1201- 
1474  (whence  quotations  are  taken),  pseudo-Clementine;  Gebhardt  and  Har- 
nack's  edition  of  "Apostolic  Fathers":  "  Prolegomena,"  pp.  xx,ff.;  Lightfoot, 
J.  B.:  "The  Aoostolic  Fathers,"  part  i,  London,  1890;  Hilgenfeld:  "Die 
clementinischen  Recognitionen  und  Homilien  nach  ihrem  Ursprung  und  Inhalt 
dargestellt,"  Jena,  1848;  Ritschl:  "Entstehung  der  altkatholischen  Kirche," 
2d  ed.,  Bonn,  1857,  pp.  205  ff.;  Uhlhorn,  G.:  "Die  Homilien  und  Recog- 
nitionen des  Clemens  Romanus,"  Gottingen,  1854;  cf.  also  his  article  in 
Herzog-Hauck,  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  IV,  1898,  pp.  163-179;  English 
translation,  New  York,  1900;  Harnack,  A.:  " Lehrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte," 
I,  3d  ed,  1894,  pp.  294-300;  English  translation,  vol.  I,  1895,  pp.  311-332. 

*  "Recognitions,"  book  IH,  7.  *  "Recognitions,"  book  IV,  35 


I40  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  ethical  world  in  which  the  writers  and  readers  of  the 
"pseudo-Clementine"  literature  lived  was  dominated  by  the 
principle  of  authority.  The  "prophet"  was  indeed  to  be  ex- 
amined with  due  care  as  to  whether  he  were  really  a  prophet  or 
not/  but  once  the  prophet  was  accepted  then  he  was  to  be 
"believed  in  everything."  ^  All  sense  of  moral  relativity  is  thus 
lost,  and  all  moral  independence  is  undermined.  Hence  for  the 
world  of  the  "Recognitions"  antiquity  had  as  much  importance 
as  for  the  High-church  party  of  Newman's  day  in  England,  and 
for  the  same  reason,  in  default  of  any  true  criterion  of  knowledge, 
age  alone  was  left:  hence  again  the  value  to  the  writers  of  this 
literature  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Of  course  the  Old  Testament  had  to  be  in  large  part  explained 
away;  for  this  the  Hellenistic  allegorical  method  was  of  much  use : 
then  also  the  Gnostics,  with  their  distinction  between  Moses  and 
his  laws  and  God  and  his  will,  were  helpful.  Hence  in  the  "  Rec- 
ognitions" Moses  and  not  God  is  said  to  have  established  sacri- 
fice as  a  concession,  ^  reminding  us  of  the  letter  of  Ptolemjeus 
to  Flora  and  the  position  of  Moses  in  his  thought.  Of  course 
such  acceptance  of  the  Old  Testament  led  to  an  almost  extreme 
legalism.  God's  friendship  is  secured  by  living  well  and  obey- 
ing his  will.*  Indeed  the  difTerence  between  Judaism  and 
Christianity  is  found  simply  in  the  acceptance  or  non-acceptance 
of  Jesus  as  prophet,  ^  and  the  Christology  is  correspondingly 
crude.  Christ  is  chief  by  appointment  over  men.'  This  ap- 
proach to  Judaism  was  made  possible,  no  doubt,  by  the  fact  that 
a  ritually  independent  Christianity  was  now  assured  and  a  great 
separation  had  really  taken  place.   For  instance  in  the  "Homilies" 

'  "  Recognitions,"  book  I,  i6. 

^  The  important  passage  reads:  "Et  ideo  ante  omnia  fidem  prophetse,  omni  cum 
examinatione  oportet  probari;  quern  cum  cognoveris  vere  esse  prophetam,  de 
reliquo  cuncta  ei  credas  oportet,  nee  ultra  discutere  eum  per  singula  quas  docuerit, 
sed  habere  firma  et  sancta  qua;  dicit,  quccque  quamvis  fide  suscipi  vidcantur, 
antchabita  tamen  probatione  crcduntur." — "Recognitions,"  lib.  I,  i6  (MPG,  I, 
I2IS  B.). 

•  "Recognitions,"  book  I,  36.  *  "Recognitions,"  book  I,  26. 

•  "Recognitions,"  book  I,  43.  •  "Recognitions,"  book  I,  45. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH     141 

and  "Recognitions"  appears  a  surprising  ignorance  of  Jewish 
economy  and  sects.'  Baptism  is  a  magical  cleansing,  so  that 
Clement  is  represented  as  withdrawing  while  Peter  prays,  for 
he  had  not  yet  been  "washed  from  the  sins  committed,^  and 
works  and  righteousness  are  the  way  to  the  new  kingdom,^  the 
gate  of  which  is  the  magic  Christian  rite.  "Let  him  be  baptized 
in  order  that,  stripped  of  his  past  evils,  he  may  for  the  future 
become  heir  of  heavenly  blessings  in  consequence  of  his  good 
conduct."  *  This  raised  interesting  ethical  questions  discussed 
in  the  next  book  as  to  sins  that  "pollute  the  garment  of  baptism," 
and  these  are  given  as  sins  of  separation  from  God  the  Father  by 
receiving  another  teacher  than  Christ,  or  by  thinking  unworthily 
of  the  substance  of  the  Godhead;  these  "fatally  pollute  the  gar- 
ment of  baptism."  In  actions  the  chief  sins  that  pollute  are 
these:  "murders,  adulteries,  hatreds,  avarice,  evil  ambitions"; 
and  the  things  that  corrupt  "at  once  soul  and  body"  are,  "to 
partake  of  the  table  of  demons,  that  is,  to  eat  things  sacrificed 
(to  heathen  gods),  or  blood,  or  a  carcass  which  has  been  stran- 
gled." ^  The  line  of  separation  is  baptism  rather  than  circum- 
cision, but  the  separation  is  as  complete.  There  should  be  no 
common  table  with  those  not  baptized,®  and  it  is  the  water 
that  confers  salvation." '  It  alone  can  extinguish  the  eternal 
fires.* 

The  note  of  the  literature  is  the  separation  of  an  organization 
on  the  basis  of  authority  and  ritual.  Bishops  are  to  be  obeyed 
as  having  the  place  of  Christ."  There  are  throughout  traces  of 
the  influence  of  Gnosticism,  but  the  main  interest  is  entirely 
separate,  and  the  distinct  teachings  are  more  than  once  com- 
bated.    Sin  is  not,  for  instance,  in  substance,  for  there  is  "no 

'  "Recognitions,"  book  I,  54,  and  corresponding  passages  in  "Homilies." 

*  "Recognitions,"  book  II,  19.  '  "Recognitions,"  book  II,  21. 

*  "Recognitions,"  book  III,  67.  '  "Recognitions,"  book  IV,  36. 

*  "Recognitions,"  book  VII,  29.  ^  "Recognitions,"  book  VI,  9. 

*  "Confugite  ergo  ad  aquas  istas,  solas  sunt  enim  quae  possint  vim  futuri  ignis 
exstinguere;  ad  quas  qui  moratur  accedere,  constat  in  eo  infidelitatis  adhuc 
idolum  permanere,  et  ab  ipso  prohiberi  ad  aquas  quae  salutem  conferunt." 
—Loc.  cit.  (MPG,  I,  1352  C.)  •  "  Recognitions,"  book  III,  66. 


143  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

evil  in  substance."  *  The  intellectual  independence  of  the 
Gnostic  literature  is  opposed  by  the  mandate  of  authority 
(passage  quoted).  Although  the  main  issues  in  Gnosticism  are 
touched  upon,  namely,  whence  comes  evil  ?  ^  and  the  question  of 
the  cosmogony,^  they  are  in  the  method  of  their  treatment 
marked  as  side  issues.  So  also  the  Chi;istological  questions  that 
meant  so  much  for  Gnosticism  are  barely  handled  in  this  litera- 
ture. Christ  is  chief  among  men,  and  evil  springs  from  igno- 
rance.^ Even  the  apologetic  interest  of  Gnosticism  is  less 
emphasized.  The  apology  is  confined  to  the  commonplace 
arguments  familiar  to  all  readers  of  the  early  literature.  Jesus 
a  true  prophet  as  shown  by  (i)  words,  (2)  works,  (3)  fulfilment 
of  law,  (4)  foretold  in  Old  Testament,  and  (5)  awaited  by  all 
nations,  etc.,  etc.^  The  interest  is  the  separation  of  an  organiza- 
tion with  a  distinct  life,  a  distinct  teaching,  and  a  distinct  ethics. 

This  last  is  what  concerns  us,  and  the  examination  of  the 
ethics  has  shown  its  legal  and  Jewish  character.  There  are, 
however,  still  fine  touches  of  the  primitive  Christian  freedom. 
In  distinguishing  between  the  false  works  of  the  pseudo-prophets 
and  the  true  works  of  the  Christian  teacher  the  character  of  the 
works  is  the  determining  factor.  The  works  of  the  sorcerer 
Simon  are  wonderful,  but  those  of  Jesus  Christ  are  marked  by 
their  loving  redeeming  quality.'  And  in  so  far  as  the  redeeming 
works  are  imitated,  it  is  only  because  of  the  end  of  the  age  coming 
with  its  final  and  confusing  tests.  For  the  old  eschatological 
interest  still  survives ''  and  the  aeon  passes  away  and  the  better 
aeon  is  coming,  and  righteousness  is  the  bond  of  that  coming  age, 
so  that  the  Christian  is  to  "  show  by  good  works  the  likeness  of 
that  Father  "  who  has  begotten  us.^ 

The  real  strength  of  this  movement  is  still  seen  in  such  a 

'  "Recognitions,"  book  IV,  23.  '  "Recognitions,"  book  III,  16, 

'  "Recognitions,"  book  I,  20.  *  "Recognitions,"  book  V,  4. 

*  "Recognitions,"  book,  V,  10. 

•  "  Ista  ergo  signa  quae  ad  salutem  hominum  prosunt  et  aliquid  boni  hominibus 
conferunt,  maiignus  faccre  non  potest,  nisi  in  fine  mundi  tantum." — Loc.  cit. 
(MPG,  I,  1308  B.)     ("Recognitions,"  book  III,  60.) 

^  "Recognitions,"  book  I,  52.  •  "Recognitions,"  book  VI,  lo. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH     143 

simple  statement  of  faith  as  we  find  in  book  VIH,  47,  where 
chastisement  is  thought  of  as  part  of  a  purifying  process,  "but  the 
chastisement  turns  to  the  advantage  of  the  pious,  that,  being 
afifected  in  the  present  life,  they  may  become  more  pure  in  the 
future  life,  in  which  a  lasting  rest  is  prepared  for  them."  Thus  sin 
and  its  weary  restlessness  is  seen  as  the  real  evil  of  life,  and  the 
only  real  redemption  is  righteousness  with  its  corresponding  peace. 
But  the  freedom  of  Paul  is  gone  and  the  dynamic  love  of 
Jesus  is  hidden  in  magic  rite  and  cumbersome  organization. 

III.      THE  INTELLECTUAL   FORMULATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

The  particular  view  of  the  world  which  any  one  of  us  holds 
rests  in  part  upon  the  authoritative  traditions  of  the  group  in 
which  we  live  and  in  part  upon  the  rational  reflective  process 
working  upon  our  own  experience.  Parents,  teachers,  com- 
panions, and  all  intercourse  with  the  world  supply  us  with  a 
certain  sum  of  knowledge,  opinions,  prejudices,  and  rules  of 
conduct.  In  greater  or  less  degree  we  seek  to  analyze  and 
rationalize  this  heritage  of  ours  in  the  light  of  growing  experience. 
No  one  can,  perhaps,  ever  rationalize  the  whole  content  of  his 
heritage.  We  only  deal  with  those  elements  of  most  immediate 
concern  to  us.  With  some  the  rationalizing  process  never 
proceeds  very  far.  Between  the  two  extremes  of  those  who 
accept  blindly  the  whole  content  of  the  tradition  handed  to 
them  without  any  conscious  rationalization  at  all,  and  those  who 
seek  to  rationalize,  however  vainly,  the  whole  traditional  view 
of  the  world,  there  are  all  degrees  of  the  rationalizing  process. 

Upon  the  Catholic  church  came  the  necessity  of  rationalizing 
her  content  of  authority-given  faith.  A  heathen  world  insisted 
upon  asking  questions.  The  authority  of  antiquity  it  offset  by 
the  claim  of  still  greater  antiquity,  which  claim  had  to  be  met. 
Moreover,  this  same  heathen  world  was  in  possession,  and  could 
enforce  with  death  penalty  its  determinations.  The  Christian 
world  was  forced  on  the  defensive,  and  the  attack  was  primarily 
upon  the  morals  of  the  Christian  system. 


144  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  existing  order  always  sees  in  a  new  religious  enthusiasm 
a  distinct  danger  and  from  its  point  of  view  rightly  resists  it. 
A  new  religious  enthusiasm  is  always  a  danger  for  the  existing 
political  state,  the  accepted  morality  and  the  conventional  way  of 
thought.  It  was  not  the  bad  Roman  rulers  who  most  intelli- 
gently fought  the  rising  power  of  the  Christian  church.  In  fact 
the  far-seeing  and  large-hearted  Marcus  Aurelius  struggling  for 
unity  of  empire  in  order  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  the 
northern  tribes  could  only  see  in  the  new  faith  a  divisive  force 
and  a  destructive  influence. 

And  he  was  right.  An  uncompromising  Christianity  must 
involve  the  overthrow  of  all  government  of  mere  force  no  matter 
how  just  or  how  benevolent.  The  enemies  of  the  cross  often 
saw  more  clearly  than  its  defenders  that  the  logic  of  Christ's 
teachings  were  dangerous  in  the  last  degree  to  the  existing  order. 
The  position  of  the  early  apologists  was  that  it  was  possible 
to  have  a  spiritual  impenum  within  the  worldly  imperio,  and 
that  a  man  could  be  loyal  to  both.^  At  the  same  time  Paul's 
dictum  (Rom.  13  :  i)  that  every  soul  should  be  subject  to  the 
higher  powers  was  offset  by  the  saying  of  Peter  that  the  Chris- 
tian had  to  obey  God  rather  than  men,^  and  by  Paul's  own 
conduct  when  he  came  into  collision  with  the  state.  The  refusal 
to  worship  the  imperial  image  was  only  the  outward  and  visible 
evidence  of  a  divided  allegiance  which  the  theory  of  Roman 
imperialism  could  no  longer  brook.  The  friction  was  bound  to 
increase  the  wider  the  influence  of  Christian  thinking  and  ethics 
became.  The  first  reflective  rationalization  of  the  faith  as  over 
against  propaganda  literature  or  moral  writings  for  the  use  of 
the  group  sprang  from  the  need  to  defend  the  Christian  teaching. 

Justin  Martyr  ^  was  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  apologists. 
His  undoubtedly  genuine  extant  works  contain  his  defence, 

'  Justin  Martyr,  ist  Apol.  17.  ^  Acts  5  :  29. 

'  Justin  Martyr,  he  tells  us,  was  the  son  of  Priscus  and  grandson  of  Bacchius, 
Apol.  I,  I,  who  came  from  FlaviaNeapolis,  in  Syria,  which  is  the  modern  Samarian 
city  of  Nablous.  He  was  born  about  104,  and  probably  sufifered  martyrdom 
under  Marcus  Aurelius  about  165.  For  literature  and  facts  of  his  life,  consult 
the  article  by  Professor  Bonwetsch,  in  Heriog-Hauck,"Realencyklopadie,"  vol. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      145 

on  the  one  side  against  Judaism,  in  his  dialogue  with  Trypho, 
and  on  the  other  against  the  might  of  Rome  in  his  "Apologies." 
Interesting  as  is  the  curious  Christology  of  the  dialogue  for  the 
student  of  dogmatics,  the  ethical  significance  of  this  work  is 
slight.  The  most  interesting  feature  is  the  attitude  taken  to  the 
law.  The  Mosaic  ritual  law  is,  according  to  Justin,  given  for 
the  sake  of  the  hard-heartedness  of  the  Jew.  Now  a  new  law 
has  come  in  Christ  Jesus,  of  world-wide  application.  In  some 
passages  this  would  seem  to  be  thought  of  as  wholly  moral  and 
spiritual.*  But  on  the  other  hand  baptism,  the  eucharist,  and 
the  simple  externals  of  the  growing  Catholic  church  are  also 
considered  part  of  this  law.^  Already  the  freedom  of  sonship, 
although  proclaimed, '  is  sorely  straitened.  Baptism  is  placed 
alongside  of  repentance  as  an  external  requirement,  but  also  as 
a  semi-magical  rite.* 

The  whole  attitude  toward  Judaism  and  the  Old  Testament 
is  under  the  constraint  of  the  notion  of  authority.  In  conse- 
quence the  Old  Testament  is  treated  as  allegory  in  a  way  that 
would  really  utterly  destroy  its  value  as  an  authority.  The 
oblation  of  fine  flour  is  a  distinct  proclamation  of  the  eucharist,^ 
and  the  bells  on  the  high-priest's  garment  plainly  foreshadow 
the  twelve  apostles.®  Moreover,  both  law  and  prophecy  are 
explained  away  in  allegory  and  figure. 

As  over  against  heathenism  Justin  denounced  the  gods  of  the 
nations  as  demons.    The  philosophers,  however,  had  grasped 

IX,  1901,  pp.  641-650.  English  translation  appearing  soon.  For  te.xts,  see 
Otto's  edition,  5  vols.,  Jena,  1876-1881,  3d  ed.,  with  Latin  translation;  Migne, 
"P.  G.,"  torn.  6  (whose  text  is  followed  in  these  pages).  Translations  in  the"Ante- 
Nicene  Fathers,"  New  York,  1896,  vol.  I;  Engelhardt,  M.  von:  "Das  Christ- 
enthum  Justins  des  Martyrers,"  Erlangen,  1878;  Ritschl,  A.:  "Entstehung 
der  altkatholischen  Kirche,"  2d  ed.,  Bonn,  1857,  pp.  298-311;  Harnack,  A. 
"Lehrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte,"  3d  ed.,  vol.  I,  1894,  pp.  464-470  and 
482-507;  English  translation,  II,  1897,  pp.  179-166,  202-230;  Harnack,  A. 
"Geschichte  der  altchristlichen  Litteratur,"  I,  i,  1893,  pp.  99-114,  838-840,  II 
I,  pp.  274-284,  508-517;  Kattenbusch,  F. :  "Das  apostolische  Symbol,"  1900, 
vol.  II,  pp.  279-298  and  508-9S3;  Kriiger,  G.:  "Geschichte  der  altchristlichen 
Litteratur,"  1895,  pp.  65-72;    English  translation,  1897,  pp.  105-116. 

'  Chaps.  28-30  of  the  dialogue  with  Trypho. 

'^  Chap.   41.         ^  Chap.   140.         *  Chap.   14.         *  Chap.   41.         ^  Chap.  42. 


146  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

after  the  truth,  Socrates  came  by  wisdom  with  a  word  of  truth,* 
and  the  Christians,  far  from  being  atheists,  proclaim  the  true  God 
as  over  against  the  demons.^  This  God  is  one  of  justice  and 
compassion  as  over  against  the  evil  spirits.  And  the  Christians 
are  not  lovers  of  evil  but  of  good;  if  some  are  said  to  be  evil 
Justin  demands  that  the  case  be  inquired  into,  first  whether 
they  are  really  so,  and  also  whether  the  evil-doers  are  really 
Christian.' 

The  apology  then  is  an  ethical  defence  of  Christianity  in 
which  Justin  seeks  to  show  that  it  stands  for  righteousness, 
chastity,  justice,  humanity,  and  the  other  qualities  of  divine 
love.*  In  reply  to  the  real  point  of  the  attack,  namely,  the  in- 
compatibility of  the  claims  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  with  the 
claims  of  Rome,  Justin  draws  a  distinction  between  a  divine 
and  a  human  kingdom,^  and  seeks  to  show  that  Christians  are 
the  maintainers  of  law  and  order,  condemning  cheats,  usurers, 
assassins,  and  teaching  a  choice  between  eternal  life  and  eternal 
damnation.®  Indeed  for  Justin  the  morality  of  Christianity  is 
personal.  Once  "we  loved  unchastity,  now  we  prize  chastity," 
once  "we  loved  money"  and  "prized  above  all  things  the  gain  of 
goods,  now  we  place  all  we  have  in  the  service  of  the  whole."  ^ 
The  whole  passage  ending  with  the  declaration  of  love  for  those 
that  hate  us  is  a  very  beautiful  summary  of  the  personal  Christian 
standards.  The  attitude  of  the  Christian  toward  the  Roman 
state  was  obedience,  but  not  of  worship,  and  a  final  judgment 
stood  higher  than  all  earthly  tribunals. 

In  regard  to  philosophy,  Justin  proclaims  the  superiority  of 
Christianity  over  the  best  pagan  thought,  but  admits  the  kinship 
between  them.*  In  the  actual  life  of  Rome,  however,  Justin 
sees  the  work  of  the  demons,  and  his  picture  of  Roman  life  is  a 
terrible  vision  of  iniquity." 

Over  against  the  philosophers  and  poets  he  puts  Moses,'"  and 
only  the  activity  of  demons  has  brought  about  the  prohibition 

'  Apol.  I,  5.  *  Apol.  I,  6.  »  Apol.  I,  7.  «  Apol.  I,  10. 

'Apol.  I,  II,  "if  we  sought  a  human  kingdom,"  dvdpuirivov  /3a<riXefav. 
«  Apol.  I,  12.  ^  Apol.  I,  14.  *  Apol.  I,  20.  •  Apol.  I,  27. 

•0  Apol.  I,  44- 


OF 

THE  ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      147 

of  reading  those  books  through  which  men  might  come  to  God. 
For  men  who  lived  rationally  even  before  Christ  came  may  be 
claimed  as  Christian/  Justin  lays  great  stress  on  the  freedom 
attained  by  the  Christian  life;  the  Christians  are  "Children  of 
freedom  and  knowledge,"  ^  and  as  over  against  the  Stoics  he 
asserts  the  freedom  of  the  will,^  which  freedom  he  finds  begins 
in  the  highest  sense  in  the  waters  of  baptism.*  The  end  of  the 
Christian  life  is  "having  learned  the  truth,  that  by  works  we 
may  be  counted  good  citizens,  guardians  of  the  commandments 
in  order  that  we  may  be  saved  with  an  eternal  salvation."  ° 

Thus  Justin's  main  apology  is  based  upon  the  dynamic 
character  of  Christianity  to  produce  personal  character  and  good 
citizenship. 

Justin  never  seems  to  have  given  up  the  philosopher's  gown,' 
and  his  respect  for  ancient  philosophy  marks  the  beginning  of 
that  process  of  harmonizing  the  primitive  Christian  faith  and 
enthusiasms  with  heathen  culture  which  was  part  of  the  inev- 
itable demand  for  a  unified  system  of  thought.  As  the  Gnostics 
compelled  the  official  church  to  define  her  theology,  so  the  in- 
creasing number  of  philosophically  trained  minds  compelled 
her  to  formulate  her  ethics. 

Thus  Justin  is  compelled  to  take  up  an  attitude  toward  the 
ethics  of  the  Stoics,  which  he  finds  admirable,'  and  in  them  as  in 
the  poets  the  seeds  of  reason  are  found.*  But  just  so  far  forth 
they  also  have  been  opposed  by  the  demons  and  hated  and  put 
to  death.  And  Socrates,  Heraclitus,  and  Musonius  are  evidences 
of  this.^  The  difference,  however,  is  that  the  philosophers  only 
sought  and  found  part  of  the  word,^"  but  Jesus  was  the  .whole 
word.  Thus  when  Justin  became  a  Christian  he  strove  to  be 
found  Christian,  "not  because  the  teachings  of  Plato  are 
different  from  those  of  Christ,  but  because  they  are  not  in  all 
respects  equal,"  as  neither  are  those  of  the  others.  Stoics,  poets, 

»  Apol.  I,  46.      2  Apol.  I,  61.      »  Apol.  II,  7.      *  Apol.  I,  61.      s  Apol.  I,  65. 
'  "Dialogue  with  Trypho,"  chap.  I,  and  Euseb.  H.  E.,  4,  11,  8-10. 
^  Apol.  II,  chap.  8.  *  <nr^p/M  rod  Xdyov.  »  Apol.  I,  5;   Apol.  II,  8-10. 

"  Logos.  "  dXX'  8rt  ovk  (ctti  irivT-t]  6fjiota, 


143  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

or  historians.*  For  Justin  philosophies  are  the  broken  lights 
of  the  eternal  word,  the  "scattered  seed,"  whereas  in  Jesus  there 
is  a  full  revelation.  At  the  same  time  there  is  no  systematic 
attempt  in  his  works  to  really  set  up  a  complete  Christian  ethical 
system  as  over  against  the  incomplete  pagan  ones,  and  no  con- 
sciousness of  the  real  significance  of  Jesus  Christ  in  a  thorough- 
going Christian  ethics. 

The  formulation  of  dogma  was,  in  fact,  to  play  a  much  larger 
part  in  Christian  history  than  the  formulation  of  an  ethics,  and 
so  ethics  was  most  rapidly  swallowed  up  in  dogmatics. 

The  Pseudo- Justinian  Tracts  addressed  to  the  Greeks  repre- 
sent the  attitude,  no  doubt,  of  average  Christian  opinion  of 
the  better-informed  sort  to  Greek  culture,  and  the  tone  differs 
much  from  Justin's.  The  impatience  is  with  the  sanctioned 
immorality  of  pagan  mythology,  and  the  appeal  is  to  a  final 
judgment.  Antiquity  and  authority  are  the  basis  of  the  appeal, 
and  the  moral  issue  is  beginning  to  be  obscured  by  the  identifica- 
tion of  Christianity  with  a  cosmogony. 

The  inevitable  adjustment  of  Christian  ethical  enthusiasm  to 
culture  made  some  understanding  with  Hellenistic  thought 
necessary,  and  this  process  of  adjustment  is  seen  most  plainly  in 
Clement  of  Alexandria.^    In  Clement  of  Alexandria  the  process 

'  Apol.  II,  13. 

*  Titus  Flavius  Clemens  was  born  about  189,  and  died  about  211-216  (Bon- 
wetsch).  His  school  in  Alexandria  was  where  Origen  also  was  trained  and 
afterward  worked.  For  a  good  account  of  the  literature,  see  Bonwetsch's  article 
in  Hcrzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  IV  (189S),  pp.  155-162;  English 
translation.  New  York,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  137-139;  and  Harnack's  "Geschichte  der 
altchristlichen  Litteratur,"  I,  i  (1893),  pp.  296-327;  II,  2  (1904),  pp.  3-23;  and 
his  " Dogmengeschichte,"  I  (1894),  pp.  331-335.  and  elsewhere;  English  trans- 
lation, II  (1897),  pp.  32-36.  The  best  text  is  that  of  Bishop  Potter,  O-xford, 
17 15,  which  is  reprinted  in  Migne,  1857,  "  P.  G.,"  VIII  and  IX.  Oberthur,  Fr., 
has  an  edition  in  three  volumes,  Wurzburg,  1 778-1 779.  English  translation  in 
"Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  II.  German  translation  of  the  "Protreptikos," 
"  The  Pedagog,"  and  "Quis  Dives,"  Kempten,  1875.  Winter,  F.J. :  "DicEthik 
des  Clemens  von  Alexandrien  "  ("  Studien  zur  Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik," 
I),  Leipsic,  1882.  Bigg,  Ch.:  "The  Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria,"  1S86. 
Hort,  F.  J.  A.:  "Lectures  on  the  Antc-Niccne  Fathers,"  London,  1895. 
Kayc,  John.:   "Some  Account  of  the  Writings  and  Opinions  of    Clement   of 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE  EARLY   CHURCH      149 

of  adjustment  of  Christian  enthusiasm  to  Grecian  culture  is 
seen,  perhaps,  almost  at  its  best.  The  religious-ethical  spirit  is 
still  in  the  foreground,  and  an  exceedingly  lofty  conception  of 
God  gives  a  strong  foundation  for  the  religious  teaching. 

In  the  " Protrepticus,"  ^  or  "Appeal  to  the  Greeks,"  ^  we  see  a 
thoroughly  broad-minded  and  tolerant  apologetic  in  which  stress 
is  laid  upon  the  pure  and  lofty  ethics  of  Christianity  in  contrast 
to  the  absurdity  and  obscenity  of  the  heathen  mythology. 

The  character  of  God  is  drawn  in  fine  and  strong  lines  as  the 
loving  Father,  "O  surprising  love  for  man!  Not  as  a  teacher 
speaking  to  his  pupils,  not  as  a  master  to  his  slaves,  nor  as  a  God 
to  men,  but  as  a  Father  does  the  Lord  gendy  admonish  his 
children."  ^  The  supreme  goodness  and  power  of  God  are  the 
basis  of  a  faith  that  shines  with  strong  loving  hopefulness.  The 
influence  of  Plato  is  apparent.  He  is  much  praised,  and  the 
traditional  Christian  position  that  he  had  some  contact  with 
Moses  is  reasserted.'*  Nor  does  Clement  deny  that  some  gleams 
of  the  truth  are  to  be  found  in  the  poets,^  although  we  must  go  to 
the  prophets  for  the  fuller  revelation.®  The  appeal  is  strong  and 
lofty  in  tone  and  full  of  learned  and  interesting  criticism  of  the 
ethics  of  the  Hellenic- Oriental  mystery  cults  which  were  Chris- 
tianity's chief  rivals. 

In  the  "  Pedagogue"  or  "  Instructor"  '  we  find  one  of  the  early 
systematic  treatises  upon  ethics,  which  suggests  how  large  a 
literature  of  this  character  may  have  been  lost  to  us  as  dogmatic 
and  speculative  questions  forced  themselves  to  the  front,  and  the 
interest  in  religious-ethical  questions  became  secondary,  so  that 
the  dogmatic  writings  were  preserved  as  the  more  important. 

The  influence  of  Musonius  upon  Clement  has  been  demon- 
strated by  Wendland.*    At  the  same  time  the  very  important 

Alexandria,"  London,  1835.  Wendland,  Paul:  "Quaestiones  Musonianas  de 
Musonio  Stoico  dementis  Alexandrini  aliorumque  auctore,"  Berlin,  1886. 

'  A670J  irpoTp€wri.K6i  irpbs  'EXXrjvas.  ^  Cohortatio  ad  Gentes. 

^  Protrepticus,   IX.  *  Protrepticus,  VI.  *  Protrepticus,  VII. 

'  Protrepticus,  VIII.  ^  7rat5o7w76i 

*  Wendland,  Paul:  "Quaestiones  Musonianas  de  Musonio  Stoico  dementis 
Alexandrini  aliorumque  auctore,"  Berlin,  1886. 


I50  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

differences  must  not  be  lost  sight  of.  Clement  puts  in  the  very 
beginning  the  emphasis  upon  the  ethical  as  over  against  the 
intellectual  life.  "His  (the  teacher's)  aim  is  thus  to  improve 
the  soul,  not  to  teach  it,  and  to  train  it  up  to  the  virtuous  not  to 
the  rational  life."  * 

The  very  character  of  God  which  forms  the  basis  of  Clement's 
system  separates  him  from  the  Stoic  and  Epicurean  schools, 
with  their  aristocratic  thought  of  God  as  Ruler. 

But  Clement  separates  himself  also  by  his  identification  of 
"reason"  (Logos)  with  the  personal  Christ,  who  has  indeed 
inspired  philosophy,  but  only  dimly  and  uncertainly.  Whereas 
we  "  have  as  our  teacher  him  that  filled  the  universe  with  his 
holy  energies  in  creation,  beneficence,  legislation,  prophecy, 
teaching,  we  have  the  teacher  from  whom  all  instruction  comes," 
and  therefore  "need  not,  I  think,  go  any  more  in  search  of 
human  learning  to  Athens  and  the  rest  of  Greece,  and  to  Ionia."  ^ 

The  fact  is  that  Clement  stands  exactly  where  scholasticism 
later  stood.  Reason  must  coincide  with  revelation.  Hence 
philosophy  is  judged  by  revelation,  and  yet  in  philosophy 
rightly  comprehended  God  does  reveal  himself.  It  is  a  "pre- 
paratory training  for  righteousness."  '  Indeed  in  several  pas- 
sages Clement  puts  it  almost  on  a  level  with  the  Old  Testament 
as  a  school-master  to  bring  men  to  Christ.'* 

Thus  at  this  point  Clement  again  separates  himself  from 
philosophy.  Against  Gnosticism  he  defends  the  unity  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.*  The  law  only  inspires  with  fear 
that  it  may  heal.  "  But  it  is  the  highest  and  best  good  when  one 
can  lead  any  one  back  from  doing  evil  to  virtue  and  well-doing, 
as  the  law  does."  '  But  at  the  same  time  this  law  must  be  in- 
terpreted in  the  light  of  the  full  revelation  of  the  Logos.^  The 
Pauline  thought  of  the  law  as  a  school-master,  pedagogue,  to 
bring  men  to  Christ  dominates  Clement's  whole  system.* 

'  Pedagogus,  I,  I.  '  Protrepticus,  XI.                    *  Strom.  I,  5. 

•  Strom.  I,  5;   I,  7;  I,  19.  *  Strom.  I,  26;  I,  27. 

'  8irep  6  vbfioi  ipyd^trai.  Strom.,  I,  27,  C. 

'  Pedagogus,  I,  II  *  Loc  cit. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      151 

Thus  in  a  sense  even  the  Gospel  is  thought  of  as  law,  but  a  law 
that  brings  freedom.  It  inspires  fear,  but  a  reverential  fear  only. 
"There  is  a  twofold  kind  of  fear,  one  of  which  is  joined  with 
reverence,^  ...  as  right-minded  children  to  their  parents,  ^ 
and  the  other  is  a  kind  of  fear  which  is  mixed  with  hatred, 
which  slaves  feel  toward  hard  masters,  and  the  Hebrews  felt 
who  made  God  a  master  not  a  Father." '  Thus  by  a  clever 
turn  Clement  answers  the  objection  of  the  Gnostics  who  rejected 
Jehovah  as  a  God  of  terror,  on  the  ground  that  this  was  a 
Jewish  misrepresentation. 

Thus  for  Clement  the  Logos  is  the  source  of  all  ethical  knowl- 
edge, and  the  canons  of  Scripture  are  uncritically  accepted  on 
the  basis  of  tradition  as  containing  the  revelation,  the  church 
being  an  authoritative  source  of  instruction  about  them,  as  over 
against  mere  individual  opinion.* 

The  goal  of  the  virtuous  life  is  to  do  the  will  of  God,  "  and  this 
virtue  is  a  state  of  the  soul  ^  made  harmonious  by  the  Logos  ^ 
throughout  the  whole  life.'"     "And  the  end  of  godliness  is 
eternal  rest  in  God."  ' 

Duties  are  essential  only  for  divine  discipline,  "and  Christian 
conduct  is  the  action  of  the  rational  soul  according  to  correct 
judgment  and  seeking  after  the  truth,  which  reaches  its  end 
through  the  body,  accompanying  and  struggling  with  it."  * 
The  goal  is,  of  course,  thought  of  strictly  individually.  Life 
is  a  training  for  immortality.®  The  Kingdom  of  God  in  the 
sense  in  which  Jesus  used  the  term  has  practically  no  place  in 
Clement.  Even  the  final  triumph  of  the  ecclesiastical  group  is 
hardly  a  defined  hope. 

'  /leri  ai'Souj. 

*  KaOdirep  oi  iraXdes  ol  <T(JI><f>povei  irpbi  roiii  varipas. 

'  de<nr6T7]v  iron^o'avTes,  ov  iraTipa.  rbv  de6v.  "  Pedagogue,"  I,  9  (MPG,  VIII, 
353,  B.). 

*  Strom.,  VII,  16-17. 

^  diddeffis  iffTi  ^pvxv^.     "  Pedagog,"  I,  13  (MPG,  VIII,  372,  B.). 

*  "  Pedagogus,"  I,  13. 

^  TAoy  5^  4<TTi  deocre^elas  i]  diSios  dvdira.vffis  iv  tQ  0ef.     "  Pedagogus,"  I,  13 
(MPG,  VIII,  373,  B.). 
'  Pedagogus,  I,  13.  •  Pedagog,  II,  i. 


152  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  possession  of  riches  is  a  danger  to  the  individual  soul, 
but  they  can  be  used  rationally/  and  all  thought  of  a  primitive 
group-communion  has  completely  disappeared. 

The  content  of  the  ethical  life  is  a  development  of  the  Pauline 
ideal,  and  the  beginnings  of  an  elaborate  casuistry  found  in  him 
are  still  further  developed  by  Clement.  Dress,  baths,  shoes, 
rings,  etc.,  are  all  described  and  their  use  by  the  Christian  fully 
set  forth ,^  and  on  the  whole  a  wise  good  sense  dictates  the 
various  regulations  suggested.  At  the  same  time  the  painful 
impression  grows  that  the  ethics  of  Christianity  are  being  more 
and  more  externalized  and  formalized  at  the  expense  of  the 
inner  inspirations. 

In  regard  to  marriage  Clement  is  still  sane  and  wholesome,^ 
although  there  are  indications  of  the  coming  intrusions  of  a 
false  asceticism.*  The  false  dualism  and  perversions  of  the 
Gnostics  are  frankly  disavowed,^  and  indeed  the  whole 
sexual  question  is  treated  with  great  openness  and  freedom.^ 
Clement  was  a  Christian  gentleman,  and  the  "true  Gnostic"  of 
Clement's  pages  was  taught  very  valuable  lessons  about  the  good 
manners  that  have  love  as  their  basis  and  self-respect  as  their 
guardian. 

True  the  note  of  increasing  compromise  with  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  a  world  essentially  pagan  in  its  culture,  even  while  it 
called  itself  Christian,  marks  Clement.  The  sense  of  rebellion 
against  the  "aeon"  ruled  by  Satan,  and  the  hope  of  a  new 
"aeon"  of  lasting  righteousness,  is  giving  way  to  salvation  by 
knowledge  of  God  and  right  life  amidst  the  world's  follies.^  The 
sense  of  isolation  from  the  world  is  not  quite  gone,  "we  have  no 
country  on  earth,  that  we  may  despise  earthly  possessions."  * 

In  the  practical  ethics  of  Clement  slaves  were  to  be  treated 
as  ourselves,  "for  God  is  the  same  to  free  and  to  bond,"  °  and 
in  the  closing  prayer  the  note  is,  "  God  is  not  a  severe  judge,  but 
a  good  God,  whom  we  may  know." 

'  Pedagogus,  III,  6.  =  Pedagog,   II   and    III.  »  Strom.  VII,  12. 

*  Strom.  II,  23.  'Strom.  Ill,  i.  "Strom.  Ill,  1-17. 

'Strom.  VI,  8.  •  Pedagog,  III,  8.  •  Pedagog,  III,   12. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      153 

Yet  when  all  has  been  said  the  student  notices  how  far  the 
church  has  gone  along  the  line  of  compromise  with  the  existing 
order.  Christianity  is  a  better  and  nobler  ethics  and  philosophy, 
but  is  essentially  a  philosophical  ethics  and  a  theoretical  knowl- 
edge. The  forms  of  ancient  thought  are  of  necessity  taken  over, 
but  with  them  have  gone  many  of  the  aristocratic  and  material 
prejudgments  so  interwoven  with  even  the  best  pagan  philoso- 
phy. The  vast  gulf  that  separates  Jesus  and  Augustus  Cassar  is 
bridged  by  a  rationalizing  compromise  that  includes  not  only 
the  adaptation  of  Christianity  to  the  forms  of  rational  process, 
but  the  adaptation  of  her  faith  to  an  ideal  that  included  the 
slavery  and  poverty  of  Rome  and  the  splendor  and  injustice  of 
imperial  power. 

This  comes  out  most  clearly  in  the  third  part  of  Clement's 
great  treatise,  the  "  Stromateis."  Here  the  attempt  is  made  to 
range  the  products  of  Christian  enthusiasm  along  with  literature 
of  the  pagan  world.  The  attempt  is  not,  indeed,  to  give  a 
systematic  dogmatics,  but  to  adjust  Christian  thinking  to  the 
philosophy  of  the  day  in  a  more  thorough  manner  than  had  been 
hitherto  done.  For  Clement  philosophies  "are  illuminated  by 
the  dawn  of  light,"  ^  and  have  "plucked  off  parts  of  everlasting 
truth,"  and  he  who  can  "bring  together  again  the  separate 
fragments  and  unify  them  may  without  danger  be  certain  to 
contemplate  the  perfect  word — the  Truth."  ^  Thus  the  Grecian 
philosophy  becomes  a  herald  of  the  "truly  royal  teaching"  and 
is  "  in  some  degree  a  training  in  one  way  or  other,  moulding  the 
character,  and  preparing  him  who  believes  in  Providence  ^  for 
the  reception  of  the  truth."  *  This  identification  of  Christianity 
with  speculative  search  after  a  world-philosophy  outweighs  in 
its  historical  consequences  the  actual  results  of  Clement's  own 
attempt. 

The  question  of  the  existence  of  evil  in  the  world  is  lightly  and 
unsatisfactorily  treated,^  and  the  cosmological  interest,  so  upper- 
most in  the  oriental  dualistic  systems,  is  not  apparent  to  any 

*  Strom.  I,  13.  *  Strom.  I,  13.  '  irpSvoiav.  *  Strom.  I,  16. 

*  Strom.  I,  17. 


\)l 


154  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

great  degree  in  Clement,  but  the  door  is  opened  for  the  entrance 
of  an  entirely  new  and  disastrous  set  of  interests,  which  were 
almost  wholly  to  supersede  the  moral  and  spiritual  enthusiasms 
on  which  Jesus  founded  his  movement. 

It  is  no  accident  that  Clement  ^  arranged  the  elements  of  the 
Christian  life  under  three  heads,  of  which  the  first  is  speculative, 
the  second  the  performance  of  the  precepts  thus  gained,  the 
third  the  forming  of  good  men;  and  that  the  speculative  elements 
contain  many  things  wholly  foreign  to  the  original  simplicity 
of  the  early  movement. 

It  is,  of  course,  to  Plato  and  the  Stoics  that  Clement  turns 
for  definite  contact  with  Grecian  philosophy.  At  the  same 
time  the  dependence  noted  by  Wendland  (see  above,  page  149) 
upon  Musonius  and  others  of  the  Stoic  school  does  not  exclude 
the  influence  of  all  the  various  philosophies  and  systems  of  moral 
teaching  that  were  jumbled  together  in  the  wide  Hellenistic 
world.  So  that  both  to  the  poets  and  philosophers  Clement 
owes  much.  Philo's  influence  is  also  seen  in  many  places,  and 
particularly  in  the  allegorical  interpretation  of  the  Scripture.^ 

In  point  of  fact  the  picture  of  the  true  Gnostic  could  never 
be  taken  from  the  pages  of  the  Stoics  alone.  All  hedonism  is 
distinctly  rejected.  "  Could  we,  then,  suppose  any  one  propos- 
ing to  the  Gnostic  whether  he  would  choose  the  knowledge  of 
/God'  or  eternal  salvation,  and  if  these,  which  are  absolutely 
[  identical,  could  be  separated,  he  would  without  the  least  hesita- 
tion choose  the  knowledge  of  God,"*  and  Clement  feels  that  this 
knowledge  is  ethical  rather  than  speculative,  and  has  clearness 
while  in  the  realm  of  physics  (metaphysics)  there  was  distrac- 
tion.' 

The  old  immediate  enthusiasm  which  was  greater  than  organ- 
ization or  any  outward  authority  is  still  for  Clement  the  basis 
.■■  \  of  the  true  Christian  life,  and  not  outward  law,  "for  the  right- 
y  eous  man's  righteousness  does  not  rest  on  contracts  nor  the 

^'  ^  commandments  of  law,  but  springs  from  his  own  spontaneous 

*  Strom.  11,  10.  '  Strom.  VI,  11.  '  rijy  yvwaiv  rov  eeoO. 

*  Strom.  IV,  22.  »  Strom.  IV,  25. 


\j 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      155 

action  and  from  his  love  to  God."  ^    And  love  is  still  the  com- 
pletion of  knowledge. 

Yet  here  also  Clement  marks  a  distinct  change  in  the  Christian 
emphasis,  and  v^e  note  a  further  advance  in  the  transformation 
of  Christianity  from  a  religious-ethical  enthusiasm  for  a  kingdom-  , 
purpose  to  an  intellectual  system  containing  many  elements, 
some  definitely  hostile  to  that  great  fundamental  purpose.     The 
ethical  ideal  becomes  individualistic,  and,  in  spite  of  disclaimers,' 
the  hope  of  individual  salvation  rather  than  devotion  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God  as  Jesus  proclaimed  it  makes  the  ethics  a/ 
refined  hedonism  which  was  bound  in  the  long  run  to  triumph 
all  along  the  line. 

Origen^  in  a  still  more  marked  manner  emphasizes  this 
change  that  came  over  organized  Christianity.  In  Origen  we 
see  Christianity  thought  of  as  a  more  perfect  knowledge  and  a 
new  key  to  the  speculative  cosmological  questions  which  had 
bothered  the  philosophic  schools.  The  few  Greek  fragments  of 
the  "  De  Principiis"  abundantly  demonstrate  the  activity  of  Ru- 
finus  in  trying  to  make  Origen  conform  to  later  conventional  tradi- 
tional Christianity,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  must  be  admitted 

'  Strom.  VI,  15. 

'  Origenes  Admantius,  born  at  Alexandria  185  or  186,  pupil  there  of  Ammonius 
and  of  Clement,  died  254.  His  principal  works  are  the  irepl  ' Kpx^v  or  "  De 
Principiis,"  in  four  books,  only  partly  existing  in  Greek  fragments,  and  in  a  Latin 
paraphrase  by  Rufinus,  who  confesses  to  omissions,  alterations,  and  additions 
(Preface  by  Rufinus),  and  his  "Contra  Celsum,"  in  eight  books,  written  in  reply 
to  the  'AXijOi^j  X670S.  The  best  text  is  that  of  the  Benedictine  monks  C.  and 
C.  V.  de  la  Rue  (Paris,  1733-1756),  and  reprinted  in  vols.  XI  and  XII  of  Migne 
"  P.  G.,"  from  which  text  the  present  references  are  taken.  Translation  in  "  Ante- 
Nicene  Fathers,"  IV,  221-669;  IX,  289-512;  translated  by  F.  Crombie  (and 
A.  Menzies,  vol.  IX).     For  literature,  cf.  Harnack,  A.:  "Dogmengeschichte," 

1  (1894),  pp.  603-647;  English  translation,  vol.  II  (1897),  pp.  332-380;  Kruger, 
G.:  "Altchristliche  Litteratur,"  pp.  107-126;  English  translation,  173-205; 
Redepenning:     "  Origenes:  eine  Darstellung  seines  Lebens  und  seiner  Lehre," 

2  vols.,  Bonn,  1841-1846;  Mehlhorn,  P.:  "Die  Lehre  von  der  menschlichen 
Freiheit  nach  Origenes'  irepl  ' kpxCov  in  der  Zeitschrift  fiir  Kirchengeschichte," 
II  (1878),  pp.  234-253;  Westcott,  B.  F.:  "Origen  and  the  Beginnings  of 
Christian  Philosophy,"  in  "  Contemporary  Review,"  XXXV  (1879,  April-August), 
pp.  324-338  and  489-502;  Bigg,  Chas.:  "Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria," 
Oxford,  1886. 


156  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

that  Origen  himself  never  wilfully  departed  from  the  traditions 
of  the  church.  "  Yet  as  the  teachings  of  the  church,  in  an  orderly 
succession  handed  down  from  the  apostles,  and  abiding  up  to 
the  present  day  in  the  churches,  is  preserved,  and  that  alone 
is  to  be  accepted  as  truth  which  differs  in  no  respect  from  ec- 
clesiastical and  apostolic  tradition."  *  The  interest  of  Origen 
was,  as  far  as  we  can  gather  from  the  rather  sparse  remains  of  an 
exceedingly  abundant  literature,^  far  more  philosophical  and 
theological  than  ethical.  Even  his  homilies  are  theological  and 
speculative,  and  he  may  justly  be  called,  as  Hamack  says,  the 
creator  of  an  ecclesiastical  dogmatism.  For  him  is  Christianity 
a  revealed  philosophy  more  complete  and  adequate,  yet  along 
the  lines  of  Grecian  speculation  and  oriental  cosmology. 

The  wise  man  finds  in  this  revealed  knowledge  his  satisfaction, 
and  distinctly  in  Origen  comes  to  light  the  element  of  ascetic 
world  flight.  For  Clement  the  married  state  was  normal,  and 
even  had  spiritual  advantages;  for  Origen  "God  has  allowed 
us  to  marry  because  all  are  not  fit  for  the  higher,  that  is,  the 
perfectly  chaste  life."  '  For  Clement  also  a  traditional  Chris- 
tianity was  not  the  bondage  it  was  for  Origen,  for  its  lines  were 
less  distinct,  its  spirit  still  practical  rather  than  theoretical. 

For  this  reason  Origen  even  more  than  Clement  has  to  assume 
a  mystical  sense  as  a  way  of  escape  from  the  difficulties  raised 
by  the  Old  Testament.  "  The  Scriptures  were  written  by  God's 
spirit,  but  have  significance,  not  only  such  as  is  apparent  at  the 
first  sight,  but  also  another  meaning,  which  eludes  the  attention 
of  most  readers."  ^  It  would  have  seemed  a  natural  thing  to 
assign  to  the  Old  Testament  the  ethical  relativity  and  value  that 

'  "Ilia  sola  credenda  est  Veritas,  qua;  in  nullo  ab  ecclesiastica  et  apostolica 
discordat  traditione." — Prefatio  ad  "De  Principiis,"  §  2  (MPG,  XI,  116  B). 

^  Jerome  says  he  wrote  more  than  any  individual  could  read  (Crombie's  trans- 
lation [American  reprint,  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  IV  (1887),  p.  229],  vol. 
II,  p.  xxxiii),  and  Epiphanius  says  he  wrote  6,000  volumes  (Si  enim  vcrum  est, 
quod  de  te  percrebuit,  sex  librorum  millia  a  te  esse  conscripta,  o  infelix,  qui 
inanissime  desudaris,  .  .  .  ),  "  Ha-rcs.,"  LXIV:  63  (MPG,  XLI,  117SD). 

'  "  Contra  Cclsum,"  book  VIII:  55. 

'Prefatio  ad  "De  Principiis,"  §  8. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      157 

Clement  as  well  as  Origen  himself  assigned  to  Greek  speculative 
ethics.  But  as  the  whole  proof  of  Christ's  divinity  began  to 
rest  more  and  more  upon  the  theoretical  value  of  the  arguments 
from  prophecy  in  the  Old  Testament  and  less  upon  the  imme- 
diate impression  of  his  person  and  teachings,  the  more  essential 
was  it  to  defend  the  Old  Testament  as  on  the  same  level  of 
direct  inspiration  as  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament. 

A  really  truth-loving  writer  such  as  Origen  could  therefore 
only  have  recourse  to  the  allegory  and  unnatural  sense  in  the 
way  Philo  had  taught  educated  Jews  to  think  of  their  scriptures.* 

In  the  interest  of  Origen  in  cosmology,  the  origin  of  evil,  the 
problem  of  sin,  the  hierarchy  of  the  spirit  world,  and  an  all- 
inclusive  view  of  the  world  may  be  plainly  seen  the  influence  of 
Gnosticism.  At  the  same  time,  like  Clement,  he  turns  away 
deliberately  from  some  of  the  most  dangerous  oriental  traits  of 
the  Neoplatonic  and  Gnostic  speculation.  "No  one  is  impure 
either  essentially  or  naturally,"^  and  it  lies  within  ourselves  to 
possess  either  happiness  or  holiness.  He  overcomes  the  eternal 
cosmological  dualism  that  hangs  like  a  shadow  over  all  Chris- 
tian thinking  influenced  by  Gnostic  speculation.  ''We  think, 
indeed,  that  through  his  Christ  the  benevolence  of  God  may 
call  back  all  his  creatures  to  one  end,  even  his  enemies  being 
conquered  and  subdued."  ^  This  being  a  far  more  ethical  and 
religious  solution  of  the  problem  than  the  relegating  the  God  of 
the  Old  Testament  to  a  lower  plane,  even  if  this  also  had  a 
profound  ethical  instinct  as  its  basis.^  Indeed  the  ethical  insight 
of  Origen  was  keen.  He  defends  the  proposition  that  goodness 
and  justice  on  God's  part  are  the  same,^  and  life  is  for  him  not  a 
probation,  but  an  education  up  to  divinity.  We  light  our  own  -,  ^  r^ 
hells  and  inflict  our  own  punishments.  "By  these  words  it^  |^>^ 
seems  to  be  pointed  out  that  every  sinner  lights  for  himself  the 

'  Cf.  also  book  IV,  i  :  11-13. 

'  "Neque  substantialiter,  vel  naturaliter  esse  aliquem  immaculatum,  neque 
substantialiter  esse  poUutum." — "De  Principiis,"  book  I,  5  :  5  (MPG,  XI, 
164  C).  ^  "  De  Principiis,"  book  I,  6  :  i. 

*Cf.  book  II,  4:1.  * "  De  Principiis,"  book  II,  5  :  3. 


158  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

flame  for  his  own  fire,  and  is  not  thrust  into  some  fire  which  has 
been  already  ht  by  another  or  exists  before  him."'  For 
Origen  Hfe  was  a  struggle  with  sin,  temptations  coming  both 
from  the  spirit-world  without  and  from  our  own  constitutions 
within;  but  happily  we  are  never  tempted  beyond  the  power  to 
resist  if  we  only  earnestly  will.^  Holy  souls,  "  after  being  purified 
by  lengthened  continence  and  being  filled  with  holy  and  relig- 
ious discipline,"  assume  a  "part  with  divinity"  and  so  gain  the 
grace  of  prophecy  and  other  divine  gifts,^  while  others  place 
themselves  under  the  influence  and  power  of  demons. 

Platonism  appears  in  Origen's  speculative  explanation  of  the 
early  appearance  of  good  and  evil  impulses.  For  him  the  pre- 
existent  soul  has  already  made  decisions  that  tell  on  the  earthly 
life.  "And  it  is  probable  that  these  movements  provide  a 
foundation  for  merit  (meritum)  even  before  anything  is  done  in 
this  world  (probably  Origen  used  the  Greek  word  aeon),  so  that 
by  reason  of  these  merits  they  are  immediately  on  their  birth,  or 
even  previous  to  it,  picked  out  by  Divine  foreknowledge  for  the 
reception  of  good  or  evil."  * 

For  Origen,  as  for  Clement,  the  summwn  bonum  is  to  become 
like  God,  but  for  Origen  the  likeness  is  distinctly  more  on  the 
metaphysical  and  less  on  the  ethical  plane  than  in  the  pages  of 
Clement,^  here  again  revealing  the  change  of  emphasis.  Author- 
ity also  means  more  for  Origen  than  for  Clement.  Even  Jesus 
came  not  to  bring  freedom  of  thought  and  action  only,  but  to 
restore  authority  and  to  reinstitute  the  broken-down  law,  and 
teach  again  the  art  of  ruling  and  being  ruled,^  seeing  that 
authority  has  broken  down.  When  at  last  God's  authority  has 
been  restored,  even  death  will  disappear.  For  though  it  is  not 
evil  but  good  in  itself,  it  is  only  good  so  long  as  the  purpose  of 
man's  heart  is  evil.^ 

*  "De  Principiis,"  book  II,  lo  :  4. 

'"De  Principiis,"  book  III,  2  :  1-6;    cf.  book  III,  i  :  1-22. 

*  "De  Principiis,"  book  III,  ;i:  3.  ♦  "De  Principiis,"  book  III,  3  :  5. 
•"De  Principiis,"  book  III,  6  :  i. 

•"De  Principiis,"  book  III,  5  :  6.     Regendi  regnandiquc. 
^  "De  Principiis,"  book  III,  6  :  5. 


THE  ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      159 

In  Origen's  defence  of  Christianity  against  Celsus  the  ethical 
elements  are  not  neglected,  but  they  play  a  rather  disappointing 
part.  Origen  recognizes  the  fact  that  in  the  last  analysis  the 
conduct  of  the  Christian  is  the  final  apology.  "Jesus  makes 
no  audible  response,  but  places  his  defence  in  the  lives  of  his 
genuine  disciples,  which  are  the  foremost  witness,  and  one  that 
is  above  all  false  witnesses,  and  rebuts  and  overturns  vain  accu- 
sations and  charges,"  ^  and  again  and  again,  in  answer  to  the 
charge  that  Christianity  is  a  system  of  deceit,  Origen  replies, 
"Who  can  with  logic  maintain  that  a  better  moral  life  which 
daily  lessens  one's  sins  could  proceed  from  a  system  of  fraud?  "  ^ 
And  again,  in  2  :  79,  the  emphasis  is  upon  what  Christianity  has 
done  for  men  in  making  them  prudent,  temperate,  etc.,  etc.^ 

It  is,  however,  as  a  world-system  and  a  religious  philosophy 
that  Origen  defends  Christianity,  and  often  with  little  success. 
He  attempts  to  put  the  ethics  of  the  Old  Testament  upon  the 
level  of  the  New.^  His  world  is  still  the  demon-peopled  world 
of  primitive  thought.  [He  will  not  allow  that  God  has  created 
evil,^  and  he  has  a  most  exalted  conception  of  God.  "  God  loves 
all  existent  being  and  despises  °  nothing  he  has  created,  for  in 
hatred  he  would  create  nothing"  ';  but  the  existence  of  evil  and 
such  a  good  God  gives  Origen  much  trouble,  and  as  Christianity 
is  a  complete  philosophy  of  religion  he  must  give  an  answer. 
Thus  he  plunges  constantly  into  discussions  of  the  spirit-world 
whose  existence  and  character  he  considers  the  Christian  revela- 
tion as  completely  explaining. 

For  the  student  of  dogmatics  the  Christology  and  theology  of 
Origen,  as  foreshadowing  that  of  the  great  Roman  church 
which  disowned  the  father  of  it,  will  have  perpetual  interest. 
For  the  ethical  student  Origen,  as  we  have  him,  presents  almost 
nothing  that  may  be  considered  an  advance  in  this  regard  on  his 
great  teacher  the  Christianized-Platonized  Stoic  Clement  of 
Alexandria. 

'  "Contra  Celsum,"  Prefatio,  §  2.  *  "Contra  Celsum,"  2  :  50. 

'  So  also  3  :  29;  c/.  3  :  34.  *  "Contra  Celsum,"  7  :  23-25. 

*  "Contra  Celsum,"  4  :  65,  66  and  6  :  55. 

•  pSe\^<r<T€Tat.  ^  "Contra  Celsum,"  4  :  28. 


i6o  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

In  marked  contrast  to  the  Alexandrian  Origen  is  found  Ter- 
tullian,^  the  occidental  writer,  whom  Hoppe  says  founded  the 
Latin  patristic  style,  but  whose  influence  must  have  been 
somewhat  limited  by  his  going  over  to  heresy.  About  his  style 
opinions  differ.  He  certainly  wrote  strong,  virile  Latin,  but 
Lactantius  complains  with  justice  that  "  Septimius  Tertullianus 
was  indeed  versed  in  letters  of  all  kinds,  but  in  eloquence  he 
possessed  but  little  skill,  and  was  not  sufficiently  polished  as 
well  as  being  exceedingly  obscure,  wherefore  he  did  not  achieve 
a  sufficient  fame."  ^  And  so  also  Jerome  complains  of  his  rugged 
and  uncouth  style.' 

All  that  we  have  from  his  pen  reveals  a  strong,  rugged,  and 

•  Quintus  Septimus  Florens  Tertullianus  was  born  in  Carthage  probably 
somewhere  about  i6o  A.  D.  He  was  the  son  of  a  proconsular  centurion,  and 
was  learned  specially  in  Roman  law.  Somewhere  between  202  and  207  (com- 
pare "Contra  Marcion,"  I,  15,  "up  to  the  fifteenth  year  of  Severus")  he  broke 
with  the  Roman  church,  Jerome  says,  on  account  of  quarrels  with  the  priest- 
hood there,  and  joined  the  Montanists,  with  whom  in  turn  he  broke.  He 
died,  therefore,  a  "heretic"  about  220.  Besides  the  older  editions  of  "Beatus 
Rhenanus,"  Basel:  Froben,  152 1;  Jakob  Pamelius,  Antwerp,  1562,  etc.,  the 
best  collected  editions  are  that  of  Semler,  J.  S.,  6  vols.,  Halle,  1769-1776;  Migne, 
"  P.  L.,"  vols.  I  and  II,  Paris,  1844  (whence  for  the  most  part  the  citations  in 
text  are  taken);  Oehler,  Franz,  3  vols.,  Leipsic,  1853-1854  (3d  ed.),  English 
translation  in  the  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vols.  Ill  and  IV  (unequally  done);  a 
German  translation  by  Kellner,  H.,  Cologne,  1S82  (Bonwetsch  says  "careful"). 
For  complete  literature,  see  Bonwetsch,  G.  N.,  in  Herzog-Hauck:  "Realen- 
cyklopadie,"  3d  ed.,  1907,  vol.  XIX  pp.  537-551,  and  Harnack,  in  "Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica,"  vol.  XXIII,  pp.  196-198.  Life,  of  which  little  is  known, 
in  Migne;  cf.  also  Harnack,  A.:  " Altchristliche  Litteraturgeschichte,"  II,  2 
(1904),  pp.  256-296;  also  Kriiger,  G.:  "Geschichte  der  altchristlchien  Litter- 
atur"  (189s),  pp.  158-174,  English  translation  (1897),  pp.  256-280.  The  older 
literature  (Allix,  de  Nourry,  Mosheim)  scarcely  touches  the  ethics  of  Tertul- 
lian,  and  deals  almost  exclusively  with  his  theology.  Of  an  enormous  literature, 
the  reader  may  best  perhaps  consult:  Kaye,  Bishop  John:  "The  Ecclesiastical 
Hbtory  of  the  Second  and  Third  Centuries  Illustrated  from  the  Writings  of 
TertuUian,"  3d  ed.,  London,  1845;  Neander.  Aug.:  ".\ntignostikus,  Geist  des 
Tertullianus  und  Einleitung  in  dessen  Schriften,"  Berlin,  1825;  Bonwetsch, 
G.  N.:  "Die  Schriften  Tertullians  nach  der  Zeit  ihrer  .\bfassung  untersucht," 
Bonn,  1878;  also  his  "Geschichte  des  Montanismus,"  Erlangen,  iS8r,  Lud- 
wig,  G.:  "Tertullians  Ethik,"  Leipsic,  1885;  Hoppe,  Heinrich:  "Syntax  und 
Slil  des  Tertullians,"  Leipsic,  1903. 

*  "Divina;  Inslilutiones,"  book  V,  i. 
»  Epist.  58  :  10. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      i6i 

interesting  but  not  very  attractive  personality.  The  undoubted 
brilliancy  is  rough.  The  unquestioned  strength  is  rude,  almost 
coarse. 

In  the  ethics  of  Tertullian  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  draw  too 
sharply  the  line  between  his  Catholic  and  his  Montanist^ 
periods.  He  broke  only  with  Rome,  not  with  his  own  hard 
legal  system  of  morality.  One  reason  he  is  so  severe  with 
Marcion  is  just  because  the  ethical  question  that  so  troubled 
Marcion  was  not  even  present  to  the  thought  of  Tertullian. 
The  God  of  Tertullian  is,  alas,  not  the  forgiving  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  the  stern  Law-giver,  the  Avenger,  and  the 
absolute  Ruler.^  God  is,  indeed,  here  described  as  "good,"  and 
his  mercy  and  free  forgiveness  stated.  At  the  same  time  the 
dominant  note  in  all  Tertullian's  thought  of  God  is  power  and 
law.  So  completely  does  he  bow  to  God  as  law  that  he  sees  no 
difficulty  with  love  and  mercy  as  running  counter  to  the  actual 
plan  of  the  world  as  we  see  it.  To  Tertullian  revenge  was  a 
necessary  attribute  of  any  God  who  really  deserves  respect. 
"Now  if  he  is  offended  he  ought  to  be  angry,  if  angry,  he 
ought  to  visit  with  punishment,^  for  this  is  the  ultimate  fruit  of 
anger,"  and  "nothing  is  so  unworthy  *  as  not  to  punish  what  he 
does  not  wish,  or  to  permit  what  he  has  prohibited."  ^  The 
son  of  a  Roman  procunsular  trained  in  law  speaks  throughout 
rather  than  the  disciple  who  has  seen  the  Redeeming  Father  in 
the  face  of  Christ  Jesus. 

He  cannot  conceive  of  the  love  that  casteth  out  fear.    "  How," 

'  The  Montanist  heresy  was  a  strange  mixture  of  primitive  reactionary  chiliastic 
hope  with  Gnostic  and  heathen  elements.  Montanus  claimed  prophetic  freedom 
and  exacted  extraordinary  severity  from  the  organized  church.  He  forbade  the 
reception  of  those  who  had  once  denied  the  faith  (lapsi)  or  those  who  had  handed 
over  to  the  authorities  the  sacred  writings  (traditores).  Martyrdom  was  sought, 
and  all  payment  of  money  to  escape  persecution  (nummaria  fuga)  was  deadly 
sin.  (C/.  Bonwetsch,  G.  N.:  "Geschichte  des  Montanismus,"  1881;  Ritschl, 
A.:  "Entstehung  der  ahkatholischen  Kirche,"  pp.  462-554,  2d  ed.,  1857.) 

*  "Contra  Marcion,"  book  II,  chap.  11-17. 

»  Si  irascitur,  debet  ulcisci.     (MPL,  II,  278  A.) 

*  Atqui  nihil  Deo  tam  indignum.     (MPL,  II,  277  D.) 
•"Contra  Marcion,"  book  I:  26. 


i62  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

he  exclaims,  "can  you   love,   unless  you   are  afraid  not  to 
love."  ' 

In  point  of  fact  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  evil  as  raised 
by  Marcion  is  not  answered  very  differently  by  Tertullian.  He 
states  that  problem  fairly  enough,^  although  heralded  by  the 
gentle  address,  "  Dogs,  whom  the  aposde  has  expelled,  yelping 
(latrantes)  at  the  god  of  truth."  '  Yet  in  fact  his  answer  in- 
cludes a  devil  who  is  simply  a  rival  to  God  very  much  as 
Marcion  makes  the  creator  God  a  contrast  to  the  Redeeming 
God  of  Jesus  Christ  and  Paul. 

To  Marcion,  however,  the  ethical  difficulty  was  far  more  real 
than  to  Tertullian.  Marcion  seems  to  have  had  a  vision  of  God 
as  redeeming  love  setting  men  free  by  the  dynamic  of  loving 
faith  in  him.  He  found  it  hard  to  reconcile  this  vision  of  God 
with  the  hard,  vindictive  outlines  of  the  Jehovah  of  Judaism. 
He  came  thus  to  hate  Judaism,  and  flung  out  the  child  with  the 
bath,  breaking  the  continuity  of  religious  history  and  blinding 
himself  and  his  followers  to  the  religious  and  ethical  values  of 
the  Old  Testament  by  the  crude  artifice  of  a  creation-god  other 
than  the  redeeming-god  of  the  Pauline  theology. 

For  Tertullian  the  antithesis  that  troubled  Marcion  hardly 
existed,  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  conception  of  God 
as  free  redeeming  love,  in  the  Pauline  sense,  is  never  used  by 
Tertullian  as  his  organizing  interest,  even  though  it  be  asserted 
in  terms.* 

The  ethics  of  Tertullian  are  profoundly  religious,  but  the 
system  is  not  Christian.  His  interest  is  indeed  mainly  ethical. 
It  was  his  intense  desire  for  ethical  reformation  and  transforma- 
tion of  a  lukewarm  church  that  finally  carried  him  over  to 
Montanism.  He  had  no  real  interest  in  the  prophetic  freedom 
of  Montanism.  His  interest  was  in  its  legal  puritanism,  and 
stern  asceticism. 

*At  quomodo  diliges,  nisi  timeas  non  diligcrc?  "Contra  Marcion,"  I,  27. 
(MPL,  II,  278  D.) 

»"  Contra  Marcion,"  book  II:  5.  *  Book  II:  5. 

*  As  in  "  Contra  Marcion,"  book  II:  7. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      163 

The  theology  of  TertulHan  is  most  distinctly  defective  simply 
because  his  interest  was  ethical  rather  than  intellectual.  His 
crude  Christology  is  decisive  evidence  at  this  point.*  And,  in- 
deed, the  sketch  of  Christian  doctrine  given  in  the  Apology  ^  in 
his  Catholic  period  reveals  the  theological  weakness  of  the  man. 

His  ethics,  however,  have  had  a  great  influence  upon  the 
thinking  of  ecclesiastical  Christianity.  Jerome  says  that  Cyprian 
called  him  "  Master," '  and  this  can  only  have  been  on  account  of 
the  extraordinary  moral  fervor  of  the  man,  for  to  Cyprian  a 
Montanist  heretic  cannot  have  been  otherwise  attractive. 

The  basis  of  Tertullian's  ethics  is  the  authority  of  tradition; 
in  both  his  Cathohc  and  Montanist  periods  the  ultimate  basis  is 
thus  an  external  authority.^  This  authority  is  found  in  the 
Bible,'  interpreted  in  the  strange  literalism  of  the  day.* 

Hence  his  system  of  ethics  degenerates  rapidly  into  a  weary 
and  burdensome  casuistry  with  the  most  exacting  hair-splitting 
and  often  absurd  abuse  of  words.' 

iJThe  goal  of  ethical  struggle  is  the  individual  attainment  of  the 
crown  of  righteousness,^  ,  The  end  of  the  world  is  judgment  and 
destruction  (Apol.,  chap.  48),  the  transcendental  elements  only 
being  saved.^    It  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  marked  individu- 

*  Et  cum  radius  ex  sole  porrigitur,  portio  ex  summa;  sed  sol  erit  in  radio, 
quia  solis  est  radius,  nee  separatur  substantia,  sed  extenditur.  Ita  de  Spiritu 
Spiritus,  et  de  Deo  Deus,  ut  lumen  de  lumine  accensum.  Manet  Integra  et 
indefecta  materias  matrix,  etsi  plures  inde  traduces  qualitatum  mutueris.  Ita  et 
quod  de  Deo  profectum  est,  Deus  est,  et  Dei  Filius,  et  unus  ambo.  "  Apologeti- 
cus,"  cap.  XXI.     (MPL,  I,  399  A.) 

'Chaps.  17-21. 

•Kaye,  Bishop  John:  "The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Second  and  Third 
Centuries  Illustrated  from  the  Writings  of  Tertullian,"  p.  6,  3d  ed.,  London,  1845. 

*  "Contra  Marcion,"  I  :  i;   I  :  21;   c/.  Apol.,  §  19. 

*  "De  Spectaculis,"  cap.  3. 

'David's  "seat  of  the  impious"  and  "way  of  the  sinner"  is  shown  to  refer 
to  the  "seats"  and  "ways"  of  the  theatre. 

^  Cf.  "  De  Oratione,"  cap.  XIV  to  cap.  XVII  or  cap.  XXIL 
8  "Ad  Martyres,"  chap.  2,  "Ad  Scap.,"  chap.  i. 

*  Quae  ratio  universitatem  ex  diversitate  composuit,  ut  omnia  ex  jemulis 
substantiis  sub  unitate  constarent  ex  vacuo  et  solido,  ex  animali  et  inanimali,  ex 
comprehensibili  et  incomprehensibili,  ex  luce  et  tenebris,  ex  ipsa  vita  et  morte: 
eadem  aevum  quoque  ita  destinata  ac  distincta  conditione  conseruit,  ut  prima 


i64  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

alism  of  his  point  of  view  that  the  clause  in  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
"Thy  kingdom  come,"  is  explained  away  as  a  final  catastrophe. 
"Nay,  Lord,  Thy  kingdom  come  with  all  speed,  this  is  the 
Christian  prayer,  the  confusion  of  the  nations,  the  exultation  of 
angels."  *  There  is  really  no  sense  in  Tertullian  of  the  kingdom- 
purpose  as  proclaimed  by  Jesus.  There  is  no  feeling  of  any 
controversy  with  an  existing  social  disorder.  The  Roman 
state  is  of  God's  ordering,  and  the  Roman  emperor  is  next  to 
God.^  Christianity  and  its  ethics  are  for  Tertullian  a  new 
Judaism,  a  better  type  of  ritual  correctness,  and  a  more  exacting 
law.^ 

It  was  therefore  only  natural  that  the  content  of  Tertullian's 
ethical  system  should  fall  far  short  of  the  New  Testament 
standard,  even  at  its  lowest.  He  defends  the  lex  talionis.*  His 
views  of  marriage  are  low  and  unworthy.^  Both  in  his  Catholic 
and  Montanist  periods  he  is  narrow  and  harsh,®  and  abounds  in 
petty  and  confused  casuistical  hair-splitting.  He  is  supersti- 
tious, but  that  was  the  fault  rather  of  his  age  than  of  his  ethics/ 
At  the  same  time  his  superstition  had  fearful  terrors.  To 
offend  the  law  was  damnation.  Montanism  held  out,  Harnack 
suggests,  an  authority  settling  many  questions  of  grave  practical 
importance  on  which  the  Scriptures  were  not  sufficient.^  He  had 
no  interest  in  its  prophetic  freedom,  but  only  in  its  new  law- 
giving. It  condemned  second  marriages,  imposed  new  fasts, 
re-established  the  Sabbath,  and  reintroduced  asceticism. 

The  asceticism  of  Tertullian  is  legal  and  disciplinary  rather 

hscc  pars  ab  exordio  rerum,  quam  incolimus,  temporali  cetate  ad  finem  defluat, 
sequens  vero,  quam  expectamus,  in  infinitam  ajternitatem  propagetur.  "  Apolo- 
geticus,"  Apol.,  XLVIII.     (MPL,  I,  526  A.) 

•  "De  Oratione,"  cap.  V. 
'  Apol.,  chaps.  30-34. 

•  "Contra  Marcion,"  book  IV:  12. 

♦  "  Contra  Marcion  "  II :  18;  though  cf.  "  Dc  Exhortatione  Castitatis,"  cap.  VI. 

*  "Ad  Uxorem,"  libri  I  et  II,  and  "De  Monogamia." 
«"DeSpec.,"  cap.  XIII. 

"  "Ad  Scap.,"  cap.  III-IV;  Apol.,  cap.  XXII-XXIII. 

*  Harnack,  A.:  "Dogincngcschichtc,"  vol.  I,  p.  396,  3d  cd.,  1894;  English 
translation  (1897),  vol.  II,  p.  loi. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      165 

than  oriental/  whereas  Tertulhan  was  not  a  dualist  in  this 
metaphysical  sense.^  True  oriental  asceticism  seeks  to  rid  the 
spirit  of  the  body,  because  matter  is  essentially  undivine. 
Tertullian  was  too  much  a  Roman  and  a  convert  to  Judaism  to 
deem  the  body  evil  in  itself,  for  God  had  made  it.  For  Tertullian 
asceticism  is  simply  the  guarantee  of  separateness  from  the  evil 
world  in  a  holy  community,^  Holiness  is  minute  obedience  to 
legal  enactment,  and  asceticism  an  aid  to  this  obedience/ 

Tertullian's  interest  does  not  seem  to  have  been  sufficiently 
intellectual  to  have  given  philosophical  Stoicism  any  great  influ- 
ence over  him.  Even  when  phrases  and  conclusions  remind 
us  of  Stoicism,  the  general  spirit  warns  us  against  connecting 
too  closely  the  two  types  of  Puritanism  that  were  struggling  in 
the  church  for  mastery.  Tertullian's  ethics  are  pharisaic 
rather  than  Stoic,  built  up,  that  is  to  say,  rather  upon  a  tradi- 
tional theology  than  upon  a  philosophical  view  of  the  world. 
There  is  no  trace  of  philosophical  pantheism,  and  no  philosoph- 
ical fatalism,^  and  even  in  the  practical  ethical  homily  the  con- 
trast in  treatment  between  Tertullian  and  Stoicism  is  marked.^ 

Naturally  this  new  pharisaicism  produced  the  fruits  of 
pharisaicism,  and  the  ethics  of  Tertullian  abound  in  harsh 
absurdities  ^  as  well  as  in  definite  and  clear  moral  insights. 

The  ethics  of  Tertullian  are  quite  distinct,  and  give  unity  to 
the  otherwise  somewhat  confused  and  turgid  torrent  of  his 
thinking.  But  the  system  is  pharisaic  and  not  Christian.  It  is 
profoundly  religious,  but  the  religion  is  not  that  of  Jesus  or 

'  The  Montanist  asceticism  seems  to  the  writer  to  have  been  distinctly  dualistic. 
Contra  Bonwetsch,  G.  N.:  "Zur  Geschichte  des  Montanismus,"  1881,  p.  87. 
'  "De  Resurrectione  carnis,"  V  :  47,  which  belongs  to  his  Montanist  period. 
'  "  Ad  Uxorem,"  book  2. 

*  "De  Exhortatione  Castitatis,"  cap.  Ill,  VII,  et  XI. 

*  "Contra  Marcion,"  II  :  5. 

•C/.  "De  Patientia,"  for  instance.    - 

^C/.  "De  Exhortatione  Castitatis,"  cap.  IX:  "Leges  videntur  matrimonii  et 
stupri  differentiam  facere  per  diversitatem  illiciti,  non  per  conditionem  rei  ipsius. 
Alioquin  qua:  res  et  viris  et  fceminis  omnibus  adest^d  matrimonium  et  stuprum  ? 
Commixtio  carnis  scilicet,  cujus  concupiscentiam  Dominus  stupro  adaequavit." 
(MPL,  II,  924  C  and  925  A.) 


i66  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

of  Paul.  There  is  tremendous  rugged  strength  in  TertuUian, 
but  it  is  pagan  moral  energy.  He  had  a  vision  of  the  living 
God,  but  he  had  not  seen  him  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
bowed  in  lowly  reverence  before  God,  but  it  was  as  Judge  and 
Master  not  as  Father  and  Friend. 

His  interest  is  therefore  an  excessive  individualism.  Even 
the  church  is  a  mere  way  of  escape,  and  when  a  better  disciplinary 
group  claimed  him  he  went  over  to  it.  His  compromise  with  the 
Roman  State  is  complete.  "A  Christian  is  enemy  to  none,  least 
of  all  to  the  emperor,  whom  he  knows  to  be  constituted  by  his 
God,  and  it  is  necessary  that  he  should  love  and  reverence  and 
honor  and  desire  his  salvation,  together  with  the  whole  Roman 
Empire,  as  long  as  the  age  lasts  for  so  long  it  will  last.^ 

Never,  even  in  his  Montanist  period,  does  the  chiliastic  hope 
which  he  cherished  really  organize  his  message  or  his  hope. 
True,  he  thinks  it  absurd  that  Christians  should  concern  them- 
selves about  posterity,  "to  whom  there  is  no  to-morrow,"  ^  but 
that  refers  rather  to  the  individual's  renunciation  of  marriage 
than  to  any  definite  conception  of  a  new  aeon. 

There  remains  always  a  profound  impression  of  strength  and 
sincerity  in  the  writings  of  this  great  father  of  Puritanism,  but  his 
abiding  influence  on  the  ethical  thinking  that  calls  itself  still 
Christian  marks  the  distance  travelled  from  the  loving  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

What  he  really  sought  was  a  church  separating  itself  from  the 
world  for  its  own  soul's  sake,  rather  than  a  church  separated 
for  the  saving  of  the  world.  Here  again  the  pharisaic  separatism 
marks  all  his  thought  and  feeling,  giving  his  ethics  a  haughty  and 
aristocratic  cast,  preparing  the  way  for  compromise  with  the 
State  where  compromise  was  out  of  place,  and  for  separation 
from  life  just  where  such  separation  works  most  mischief. 

>  "Quousque  saeculum  stabit"  ("Ad  Scapulam,"  cap.  II).     (MPL,  I,  700  A.) 
'"Quibus  crastinum  non  est"   ("De  Exhortatione  Castitatis,"  cap.  XII). 
(MPL,  II,  927  B.) 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      167 


IV.      THE  ETHICS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  ORGANIZATION 

As  early  as  the  Ignatian  Letters  ^  the  Episcopal  organization 
was  demanding  the  unity  under  the  will  of  the  bishop  which 
seemed  so  essential  for  the  conservation  of  the  young  church's 
life.  "It  is  right,  therefore,"  says  Ignatius,  "that  you  should 
run  together  according  to  the  will  of  the  bishop  who  rules  you 
according  to  God,"  ^  and  in  the  same  chapter  he  says,  "For  your 
justly  well-known  presbytery,  worthy  of  God,  is  tuned  exactly 
to  the  bishop,  as  the  strings  are  to  the  lyre."  Already  the 
hierarchy  had  made  its  appearance,  as  was  almost  inevitable,  and 
the  laity  depend  on  the  bishop,  as  the  church  does  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  and  the  Lord  does  on  God  his  Father.^  The  great  sin  is 
already  separation  from  the  church.  "For  he  that  yields  not 
obedience  to  his  superiors  is  self-confident,  quarrelsome,  and 
proud."  *  The  early  Christians  were  taught  to  be  loving  and 
gentle  to  all  the  heathen  world.  "  For  say  ye  to  those  that  hate 
you,  *  Ye  are  our  brothers,'  and  the  Lord's  name  may  be  glori- 
fied," ^  but  toward  the  heretics  of  their  own  number  no  bitterness 
was  misplaced.  "He  is  lying,  fraudulent,  soothing,  fawning, 
traitorous,  rhapsodical,  frivolous,  discordant,  wordy,  sordid,  and 
cowardly."*  "Whosoever  'being  waxen  fat'  and  'become 
gross'  sets  at  naught  His  doctrine  shall  go  to  hell."  ^    All  the 

*  Ignatius  Theophorus,  second  or  third  Bishop  of  Antioch  (Euseb.,  H.  E.,  Ill, 
22),  of  whom  little  is  known  save  his  alleged  martyrdom  under  Trajan  at  Rome, 
either  107  or  1 16.  Many  letters  are  attributed  to  him.  The  accepted  form  is  in 
seven  letters  to  the  Ephesians,  Magnesians,  Trallians,  Romans,  Philadelphians, 
Smyrnxans,  and  to  Polycarp.  (Harnack  and  Zahn  following  Lightfoot.)  The 
longer  collection  contains  many  additions  and  spurious  attributions.  The  best 
editions  are  Migne,  "P.  G.,  V,"  cols.  643-960;  Zahn;^  Theod.,  1876;  Funk,  F.  X., 
1881;  Lightfoot,  J.  B.,  1885  and  1891.  Translation  in  the  "Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,"  vol.  I,  1887.  The  general  literature  is  enormous;  compare  Harnack, 
A.:  " Altchristliche  Litteraturgeschichte"  (1893),  pp.  75-86,  and  also  his  trea- 
tise, "Die  Zeit  des  Ignatius,"  Leipsic,  1878;  Krueger,  G.:  "Geschichte  der 
altchristlichen  Litteratur"  (1895),  pp.  18-22;  English  translation  (1897),  pp. 

28-34. 

'  Ephesians,  chap.  IV.  '  Ephesians,  chap.  V.         *  Ephesians,  chap.  V. 

*  Ephesians,  chap.  X.  "Ephesians,  chap.  IX  (longer  form). 
^  Ephesians,  chap.  XVI;  Trallians,  VI. 


i68  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

freedom  of  moral  supremacy  over  the  law  is  swallowed  up  in  the 
awe  and  reverence  due  to  the  bishop.  "  It  is  becoming,  there- 
fore, that  ye  also  should  be  obedient  to  your  bishop,  and  contra- 
dict him  in  nothing;  for  it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  contradict  such  an 
one."  ' 

The  whole  tragedy  of  the  Old  Testament  is  not  lack  of  vital 
righteousness,  or  even  failure  to  be  faithful  to  monotheism,  but 
the  lack  of  obedience  to  the  appointed  spiritual  rulers  and  the 
consequent  divisions  and  schisms.^ 

The  denial  of  Judaism  is  formally  very  fierce.  The  Sabbath 
is  no  longer  to  be  kept  in  a  Jewish  manner  as  a  day  of  idleness, 
but  as  a  day  of  work.  But  it  is  really  only  a  transference  from 
the  eighth  day  to  the  first,  for  the  resurrection  day  becomes  for 
all  practical  purposes  the  Jewish  Sabbath.^  The  spiritual 
supremacy  of  the  moral  man  as  lord  of  the  religious  life  is  an 
almost  wholly  lost  conception.  Obedience  to  the  bishop  and 
subjection  to  tradition  have  usurped  the  place  given  by  Jesus 
to  the  Son  of  Man.  The  dangers  to  the  church  are  intellectual 
vagaries  like  doceticism  ^  and  all  manner  of  schismatics  ^  and  a 
divided  eucharist.®  Marriage  is,  however,  still  held  in  esteem, 
and  wholesome  counsel  is  given  against  despising  it.  "Not, 
however,  that  I  blame  the  holy  ones  because  they  entered  into 
the  marriage  state.  For  I  pray  that  I  may  be  found  worthy  of 
God  and  may  sit  at  their  feet  in  the  kingdom,  as  at  the  feet  of 
Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  as  of  Joseph  and  Isaiah  and 
the  rest  of  the  prophets,  as  of  Peter  and  Paul  and  the  rest  of  the 
aposdes  that  were  married.  For  these  entered  into  these 
marriages  not  on  account  of  appetite,  but  to  propagate  man- 
kind." ' 

Martyrdom  is  longed  for  as  a  means  of  attaining  God.  "  Pray, 
then,  do  not  try  to  do  me  any  greater  favor  than  that  I  be  sacri- 
ficed to  God  while  the  altar  is  still  prepared  .  .  .  deemed 
worthy  to  be  found  and  sent  for  from  the  East  to  the  West  to 

'  Magnesians,  III.  '  Magnesians,  III.  '  Magnesians,  IX. 

♦  Trallians,  X  and  XI.  »  Philadclphians,  III.  "  Philadelphians,  IV. 

'  Philadelphians,  IV. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      169 

become  a  martyr  in  behalf  of  his  own  precious  sufferings  so 
as  to  pass  from  the  world  to  God,  that  I  may  rise  again  unto 
him":'  and  again,  "suffer  me  to  become  food  for  the  wild 
beasts,  through  whose  instrumentality  it  will  be  granted  me  to 
attain  to  God."  ^  Throughout  the  letters  there  breathes  the 
earnest  and  devoted  spirit  of  the  sincere  and  faithful  ecclesiastic, 
whose  sense  of  duty  is  wellnigh  coterminous  with  the  life  of  the 
outward  organization,  and  to  whom  the  organization  has  become 
the  sensible  incarnation  of  the  divine  life. 

Thus  in  Ignatius  there  is  firmly  laid  the  foundation  for  a 
church  that  usurps  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  man,  and 
it  now  only  remained  to  define  and  defend  that  organization 
and  to  establish  her  ethics. 

This  work  is  reflected  in  very  great  completeness  in  Irenaus} 
For  this  writer  the  church  as  a  sacramental  institution  has  full 
authority  over  the  individual  life,  and  Christianity  is  simply  a 
new  type  of  Judaism.*  The  ethics  of  Jesus  are  simply  the  old 
law  revised  by  adding  dogmatic  theses  to  it.  Our  righteousness 
must  simply  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
by  "believing  not  only  in  God  the  Father  but  in  the  Son,"  and 
in  doing  the  law  instead  of  simply  repeating  it,  and  making  it 

'  Romans,  II.  *  Romans,  IV. 

'  Irenasus  was  born  probably  in  Asia  Minor  and  probably  not  before  1 20  or 
much  later  than  130.  He  may  have  been  martyred,  although  this  tradition  is  late 
and  the  date  of  his  death  is  unknown.  His  books  are  mostly  lost.  Among 
those  known  to  have  existed  but  now  lost  are  irepl  fiovapx^a-s  (Eus.  V,  20,  i. 
MPG,  XX,  484  B);  Tb  ffTrovda(TfiaTrepl6y8oddos  {Eus.  Y,  20,  I.  MPG,  XX,  484 
B);  irepl  cx^o'/iOTos  iiriffToK-fi  (Eus.  V,  20,  i);  7rp6s  'RUrupa  iiria-roX'^  (Eus.  V, 
24,  1 1-7.     MPG,  XX,  496).     (Letters  to  Victor,  Bp.  of  Rome.) 

Two  apologetic  letters  (Euseb.,  H.  E.,  V,  26)  ^i^Xlov  rt  SiaX^^euv  Sia(p6po)v 
and  some  other  fragmentary  apologetic  writings.  There  remain,  however, 
the  five  books  of  his  chief  work,  although  only  in  a  literal  Latin  translation, 
"  Contra  Haereses "  or  ''EXe7xoJ  Kal  dvarpoirij  rijs  "irevduv^/xov  yvdxreus.  Eus., 
H.  E.,  V,  7,  1.  (MPG,  XX,  445  D.)  Numerous  remains  of  the  Greek  enable 
us,  however,  to  judge  of  the  faithfulness  of  the  translation.  There  are  many 
editions.  Among  the  best  known  are  "Erasmus"  (Basel,  1526),  Migne,  "P.  G.," 
VII,  cols.  433-1322.  Translation  in  the  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  I,  pp.  307- 
578.  For  general  literature,  consult  Harnack,  "Gesch.  der  altchristl.  Littera- 
tur,"  I,  pp.  263-288. 

*Book  IV,  12  :  2. 


170  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

our  desire  as  well  as  doing  it/  The  sacrament  is  already  the 
"oblation."^  Eating  defiles  the  man,  "For  instance,  they  (her- 
etics) do  not  scruple  to  eat  meat  offered  unto  idols,  imagining 
that  they  cannot  contract  defilement."  ^  It  is,  moreover,  incon- 
ceivable for  Irenaeus  that  intellectual  heretics  should  be  good 
men.  Marcion  is  charged  with  disgraceful  conduct,*  and  the 
Gnostics  have  been  distinctly  instigated  by  Satan  "to  a  denial 
of  that  baptism  which  is  regeneration  to  God."  ^ 

Moreover,  God  is  thought  of  in  terms  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  fear  at  his  name  becomes  the  foundation  of  conduct,^  so 
that  the  mere  name  has  potency,  and  the  Jews  do  by  its  means 
put  demons  to  flight.'  There  is  a  twofold  standard  of  authority. 
On  the  one  hand  the  books  of  the  apostles,  and  on  the  other  the 
tradition  which  "originated  with  the  apostles  and  is  preserved 
by  means  of  the  successions  of  the  presbyters  in  the  churches.^ 
The  theory  of  inspiration  is  already  rigid:  "All  scriptures  given 
to  us  by  God  will  be  harmonious."  "  Hence  the  rule  for  interpre- 
tation is  very  simple.  The  parables  are  to  be  made  to  harmonize 
with  those  passages  which  are  perfectly  plain.  And  all  these 
scriptures  and  traditions  are  the  new  codes  by  which  the  Supreme 
Creator  rules  his  creatures. 

The  whole  conception  of  the  relation  of  God  to  his  world  is 
utterly  uninfluenced  by  the  vision  of  God  as  redeeming  love  in 
the  face  of  Christ  Jesus.  The  Son  reveals  the  Father,  but  re- 
veals him  "as  one  only  God,  the  Creator,  he  who  is  above  every 
principality  and  power  and  dominion  and  virtue,"  who  made 
by  wisdom  all  things,  in  opposition  to  the  Gnostic  teaching  of 
mediate  creation.*"  Already  the  gospel  message  is  hardened  and 
formalized  into  a  "plan  of  salvation."  "    It  is  a  "doctrine  of  the 

•  Book  IV,  13:1.  »  Book  IV,  18  :  5.  »  Book  I,  6  :  3. 

•  Book  T,  13  :  1-7.  »  Book  I,  21:1.  •  Book  II,  6  :  2. 
^  Book  II,  6:2.                          *  Book  II,  2  :  2. 

•  Kal  ira.<rr)  Tparp^  SeSo/ji^vTi  rjtuv  airb  Qfou  trvftipwvos  Vf^^''  evpe0i/i<rtTai.  "  Contr. 
Hcer.,"  II,  28,  3.     (MPG,  VII,  806  C.)  '»  Bcwk  II,  30  :  9. 

"  Non  enim  per  alios  dispositionem  salutis  nostrae  cognovimus,  quam  per  eos, 
per  quos  Evangclium  pervenit  ad  nos.  "  Contr.  Ha;r.,"  Ill,  1,  i.  (MPG,  VII, 
844  A.) 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH     171 

Son  of  God,"  *  and  a  dogmatic  system  is  already  completely 
identified  with  the  "only  true  and  life-giving  faith."  This  body 
of  truth  is  safely  housed  in  the  central  church  at  Rome,  "the 
tradition  is  derived  from  the  apostles  of  the  exceeding  great  and 
ancient  and  universally  known  church  founded  and  organized 
at  Rome  by  the  two  most  glorious  apostles  Peter  and  Paul  .  .  . 
for  it  is  a  necessary  thing  that  every  church  should  agree  with 
this  church  on  account  of  its  pre-eminent  authority."  ^  Under 
such  circumstances  the  ethics  becomes  primarily  an  ethics  of  the 
organization,  and  that  organization  is  a  sacramental  ark  of 
safety.  The  chief  virtues  are  submission,  faith  in  the  church  and 
the  sacraments,  undying  fidelity  to  the  profession  of  faith. 

The  ethics  are  a  new  law,  and  Jesus  goes  before  "  fulfilling  the 
law  by  performing  the  offices  of  the  high-priest,  propitiating  God 
for  ^  men.  The  Decalogue  is  the  permanent  norm.^  Even  sin 
has  as  a  part  of  its  chief  heinousness  the  fact  that  it  injures  the 
organization  life.^  The  problem  of  sin  as  a  tremendous  chal- 
lenge of  either  the  goodness  or  the  power  of  God,  which  so  stag- 
gered the  Gnostic  thinkers,  has  no  terrors  for  Irenaeus,  who  argues 
that  God  could  have  made  man  perfect,  but  that  man's  infancy 
could  not  receive  perfection.*  The  reasoning  is  slipshod  in  the 
extreme,  for  the  interest  has  changed.  The  centre  of  that  inter- 
est is  no  longer  a  vital  dynamic  righteousness,  but  a  strong 
propagandist,  sacramental  organization  to  which  Gnostic  specu- 
lation is  only  abhorrent  because  divisive,  and  whose  basis  is  the 
unquestioned  acceptance  of  an  outward  authority. 

From  some  oriental  intrusions  Irenasus  turns  definitely  away. 
His  contention  that  the  flesh  is  sound,  and  although  it  will  not 
and  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom,  the  kingdom  can  and  must 
inherit  it,  is  substantially  Pauline  and  Christian.'  He  denounces 
the  preaching  against  marriage  on  the  part  of  the  Encratite.* 

*  Book  III,  preface. 

'  Propter  potiorem  principalitatem.  "Adv.  Haer.,"  Ill,  3,  2.  (MPG,  VII, 
849  A.) 

3  Book  IV,  8:2.  *  Book  V,  17  :  i.  *  Book  IV,  33  :  7. 

•  Book  IV,  38  :  1-4.  ^  Book  V,  9  :  i;  book  V,  10  :  2 
»  Book  I,  28  :  I. 


172  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

At  the  same  time  the  coming  oriental  ascetic  type  of  piety 
already  casts  its  shadow  over  orthodoxy.  "Adam  shows  his  re- 
pentance by  covering  himself  with  fig-leaves,  although  there  were 
many  other  leaves  that  would  have  less  irritated  his  body,"  ^ 
and  continency  is  a  gift  by  itself. 

The  whole  atmosphere  has  now  changed.  The  ethics  of 
Jesus,  founded  upon  the  spiritual  supremacy  of  the  redeemed 
life,  has  given  way  to  an  organization  legalism.  The  church  is 
no  longer  an  organization  of  men  and  women  for  redeeming  the 
world,  but  a  sacramental  system  under  bishops  and  presbyters 
in  which  men  may  seek  safety.  Morality  is  no  longer  a  re- 
deemed purpose  consonant  to  the  will  of  God,  but  an  outward 
and  wholesome  bondage  laid  upon  us  for  the  saving  of  our 
souls.  God  is  no  longer  thought  of  in  terms  of  vital  righteous- 
ness, but  in  terms  of  creative  activity  and  over-lordship.  For 
the  development  of  an  ethics  on  this  basis  we  turn  from  Irenaeus 
to  Cyprian.'^ 

In  grace  of  style  and  simple  straightforwardness  Cyprian 
greatly  excels  both  Tertullian  and  Irenaeus.  He  has  also  his 
ecclesiastical  theory  more  fully  worked  out  than  Tertullian,  and 
his  practical  interest  is  even  greater  than  that  of  Irenaeus.  In 
his  innumerable  letters  we  see  the  ecclesiastical  mind  actually 
moulding  the  ethics  of  the  community,  and  being  itself  constantly 
directed  by  the  interest  of  the  organization. 

For  Cyprian  this  organization  was  the  fmal  authority.     "  From 

'  Book  III,  23  :  5. 

'  Thascius  C^cilius  Cyprianus  was  born  about  200  and  probably  in  Carthage. 
He  was  of  good  family  and  was  an  educated  teacher  of  rhetoric:  he  was  won 
for  the  church  by  the  presbyter  Ccecilianus,  and  soon  was  made  bishop.  During 
the  Decian  persecution  he  was  in  hiding,  but  under  Valerian  he  met  a  martyr's 
death  in  September,  258.  For  full  list  of  letters  and  works,  see  Harnack,  A.: 
"Altchristliche  Litteraturgeschichte,"  pp.  688-723;  Kriiger,  G.:  "Geschichte 
der  altchristlichcn  Lilteratur"  (1895),  pp.  174-180,  English  translation  (1897), 
pp.  280-304.  The  text  has  been  edited  from  Erasmus  (1520  and  1530)  down  to 
Migne  ("Patrologia  Latina,"  vol.  IV,  cols.  191-1032),  from  which  text  the  quota- 
tions are  taken.  Translation  in  the  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  V,  pp.  261-596. 
Compare  also  article  in  Herzog-Hauck:  "  Realencyklopadie,"  by  K.  Leimbach, 
vol.  IV,  pp.  367-375,  English  translation  (1909),  vol.  Ill,  pp.  331-33^- 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      173 

the  beginning,  therefore,  of  my  bishopric  I  determined  to  do 
nothing  on  my  own  private  opinion  without  your  (his  co- 
presbyter's)  advice  and  the  consent  of  the  people."  ^  And  this 
organization  is  a  fighting  propagandist  army.  "We  are  still 
in  the  world,  we  are  still  placed  in  the  battle-field,  we  fight  for  our 
lives  daily."  ^  This  sense  of  the  utter  corruption  of  the  world, 
and  the  horror  of  its  injustice,  cr-uelty,  and  vice,  finds  strong  ex- 
pression in  Cyprian,  and  although  the  church  is  to  conquer,  yet 
the  only  present  relief  for  the  individual  is  to  seek  tranquillity  in 
"withdrawing  from  the  whirlpools  of  the  distracting  world  and 
to  lift  his  eyes  from  earth  to  heaven.  He  who  is  really  greater 
than  the  world  can  desire  nothing  from  it."  ^  Indeed  in  Cyp- 
rian one  feels  the  same  sense  of  underlying  terror  and  horror 
of  existing  conditions  which  breathes  in  so  much  of  Seneca. 
But  while  Cyprian  feels  like  Seneca  that  "  It  is  a  crime  now  to 
be  innocent  among  the  guilty,"  yet  Cyprian  looks  forward  with 
confidence  to  the  conquest  of  the  world  by  the  ecclesiastical 
organization.  In  the  very  martyrdoms  of  the  church  she  is 
overcoming  the  world.^  The  day  of  affliction  overshadows  the 
church  and  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  time  of  the  Antichrist 
draws  near,  but  the  end  is  to  be  a  glorious  triumph.^ 

Hence  it  is  all-important  that  the  organization  have  unity, 
and  one  of  Cyprian's  chief  works  is  "De  Unitate  Ecclesias." 
This  unity  is  on  the  basis  of  the  sacraments  and  Peter  the  Rock.^ 
These  sacraments  are  magic  rites  by  which,  "by  the  help  of 
the  water  of  the  new  birth,  the  stain  of  former  years  had  been 
washed  away,"  ^  and  sustaining  grace  is  magically  imparted  in 
the  eucharist.®  It  is  therefore  of  the  greatest  moment  to  keep 
the  control  of  baptism  within  the  organization,  and  to  acknowl- 
edge heretic  baptism  would  be  fearfully  weakening.  Heretic 
baptism  is  therefore  null  and  void,^  for  how  can  any  one  give  to 

'  Eps.  5  :  4.     Mea  privatim  sententia. 

^  Eps.  6:2.  '  Eps.  I  (ad  Donatum),  14. 

*  Eps.  8:1.  *  Eps.  57  :  I. 

*  "De  Unitate  Ecclesiae,"  6  and  Eps.  52  :  8;  English  translation,  51:8;  Eps. 
55  :  14;  English  translation,  54  :  14.  '  Eps.  I  (ad  Donatum),  4. 

*  Eps.  9:2.  *  Eps.  71:1. 


174  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

another  remission  of  sins  who  himself,  being  outside  the  church, 
cannot  put  away  his  own  sin. 

The  church  is  to  be  conserv^ed  by  the  maintenance  of  the 
authority  of  the  bishops,  who  are  higher  than  even  the  presbyters,* 
and  the  chief  virtues  are  those  most  essential  to  the  organization 
life.  "The  whole  foundation  of  religion  and  of  faith  springs 
from  obedience  and  fear."  ^  The  strong  appeal  for  purity  of 
life  is  the  life  and  welfare  of  the  organization,  and  for  its  sake 
the  Christians  are  to  watch  one  another.^  "  Its  life  is  continuous 
through  the  bishops.  Thence  through  all  the  changes  of  time 
and  successions,  the  commands  of  the  bishop  and  the  routine  of 
the  church  go  onward,  so  that  the  church  is  founded  upon  the 
bishops,  and  every  act  is  to  be  controlled  by  these  rulers."  *  The 
emphasis  upon  organic  unity  is  constant  and  insistent.  "  There 
is  one  God,  and  Christ  is  one,  and  there  is  one  church  and  one 
chair  founded  upon  the  rock  by  the  word  of  the  Lord.  Another 
altar  cannot  be  constituted  or  a  new  priesthood  made,  except 
the  one  altar  and  the  one  priesthood."  ^  Moreover,  this  unity 
has  a  local  place,  "Since  Rome  from  her  greatness  plainly 
ought  to  have  precedence  of  Carthage."  ° 

No  teacher  then  should  even  be  listened  to  who  is  outside  the 
pale  of  the  church;  "he  who  is  not  in  the  church  of  Christ  is  not 
a  Christian."  '  This  Rome  is  "the  throne  of  Peter,"  and  is  the 
chief  church  "whence  priestly  unity  has  its  source."  * 

Naturally  such  strict  ecclesiasticism  bred  laxity,  for  it  was 
vastly  important  not  only  to  keep  outward  unity  but  to  insure 
salvation  to  as  large  a  number  as  possible,  so  that  Cyprian  writes: 
"I  remit  everything,  I  shut  my  eyes  to  many  things,  with  the 
longing  and  the  hope  to  gather  the  brotherhood  together";  and 
again,  "Even  those  things  committed  against  God  I  do  not 
inquire  into  with  the  exact  judgment  of  religion.     Almost  do  I 

'  Eps.  9:1.  ^  "De  habitu  Virginum,"  2.  '  Eps.  6  :  5. 

*  Eps.  27:1;  English  translation,  26  :  i. 

*  Eps.  40  :  5;   English  translation,  39  :  5. 

*  Eps.  49  :  2;   English  translation,  48  :  2. 

'  Eps.  55  :  4;   English  translation,  51  :  24. 
■Eps.  55  :  14;   English  translation,  54  :  14. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH      175 

myself  sin,  as  I  remit  more  sins  than  I  should.  I  embrace  those 
who  in  penitence  return  confessing  their  sins  with  humble  and 
sincere  atonement,  with  speedy  and  complete  love."  * 

Of  course,  as  with  Ignatius  and  Irenaeus,  the  sacraments  are  a 
magical  system  imparting  grace  per  se.  "Infants  are  to  be 
baptized  at  once,  for  the  mercy  and  grace  of  God  are  not  to  be 
refused  to  any  bom  of  man,"  ^  and  therefore  sacramental  cor- 
rectness is  of  primary  importance,^  and  the  priesthood  is  invested 
with  peculiar  spiritual  powers  after  the  analogy  of  the  Aaronic 
priesthood;  and  as  the  unhappy  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram 
were  swallowed  up  for  disobedience,  so  all  rebels  against  the 
bishop  are  in  serious  danger.^  Indeed  this  incident  figures 
largely  from  Ignatius  on  down  through  all  the  ecclesiastical 
writers. 

The  outcome  of  moral  thought  on  such  a  foundation  is  a 
minute  and  external  casuistry.  It  is  based  on  rewards  and 
punishments  measured  according  to  the  legal  measure  of  the 
transgression.  Even  the  persecutions  that  take  place  come  on 
account  of  the  sins  of  the  community.  The  picture  Cyprian 
draws  of  the  state  of  the  church  shows  how  far  the  formalizing 
externalizing  process  had  gone.  In  the  treatise  "  De  Lapsis"  he 
catalogues  these  sins.  They  are  increasing  estates  and  covetous- 
ness.  Priests  have  no  devotion  to  religion.  Ministers  are  not 
sound  in  the  faith.  Works  of  mercy  fail.  Discipline  is  lax.  Men 
deface  their  beards.  Women  paint  their  faces,  color  their  eyes, 
and  stain  their  hair.  Frauds  are  practised.  Marriages  are  con- 
tracted with  unbelievers.  There  are  slanders,  false  swearing,  and 
quarrels,  and  the  bishops  take  up  secular  business. 

There  was  mingled  with  the  ethics  the  most  mechanical  con- 
ception of  pollution.  In  this  same  treatise  ^  a  story  is  told  of  an 
unhappy  infant,  temporarily  abandoned  by  the  parents,  being 
forced  to  partake  of  bread  and  wine  ofiFered  to  idols.    This 

'  Eps.  55  :  16;  English  translation,  54  :  16. 

*  Eps.  MPL,  59  :  2;   English  translation,  58  :  2. 

'  Eps.  MPL,  63  :  11;    English  translation,  62  :  11. 

*  Eps.  MPL,  65  :  i;   English  translation,  64  :  i. 

*  "De  Lapsis,"  25. 


176  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

"crime"  is  unknown  to  the  parents,  who  on  recovering  their 
infant  take  it  to  the  church,  and  there  the  "little  girl  among 
saints"  is  impatient  of  the  prayers  and  "was  at  one  moment 
tossed  about  like  a  wave  of  the  sea  by  the  excitement  of  her 
mind, "  and  on  the  deacons  forcing  upon  her  the  sacramental  cup, 
the  wine  "burst  forth  from  her  polluted  body,"  revealing  the 
"crime,"  which  her  infant  years  made  it  impossible  for  her  to 
either  understand  or  relate. 

The  conception  of  God  is  that  of  a  judge  to  be  convinced  and 
a  ruler  to  be  appeased.  Those  that  have  proved  weak  in  the 
hour  of  trial  and  who  have  fallen  must  not  think  that  "  the  Lord 
can  be  quickly  appeased";  "do  you  think  that  he  will  easily 
have  mercy  upon  you,  he  whom  you  have  pronounced  to  be  not 
your  God?"  and  the  appeasement  is  by  watching,  weeping,  fast- 
ing, spending  days  and  nights  in  prayers  and  tears,  dressed  in 
sackcloth  and  filth,  earnest  in  good  works,  "whereby  sin  may  be 
purged  away,  frequently  doing  alms,  whereby  souls  are  set  free 
from  death."  * 

So  completely  has  the  conception  of  God  changed  to  the  old 
pharisaic  thought  of  him,  that  even  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  we  are  told  that  we  say  "Our  Father"  because 
he  has  begun  to  be  ours  and  ceased  to  be  the  Father  of  the  Jews 
who  have  forsaken  him.  Martyrdom  is  pleasing  to  God  per  se, 
and  the  martyrs  have  peculiar  power  with  God,-  and  prayers  are 
winged  by  these  sufferings.' 

Cyprian  is  generally  milder  than  Tertullian,  but  there  are 
some  fiercely  pagan  passages,  as  in  the  address  to  Demetrianus, 
where  he  describes  the  joy  of  the  saints  in  seeing  the  tortures  of 
Gehenna  inflicted  upon  those  who  once  persecuted  them,^  and 
this  in  spite  of  his  own  acknowledgment  that  "we  must  not 
hate."  ' 

In  fact,  to  sum  up  the  ethics  of  this  type  of  thinking,  it  is  not 
only  on  the  lower  planes  of  pharisaic  Judaism,  but  it  does  not 

'  "De  Lapsis,"  35.  *  "Dc  orationc  Dominica,"  24. 

'  "De  oratione  Dominica,"  ^3.  *  "Liber  ad  Demetrianum,"  24. 

'"Liber  ad  Demetrianum,"  25. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      177 

even  rise  to  the  higher  planes  of  Stoicism.  The  whole  conception 
of  man's  moral  freedom  and  supremacy  over  the  law  is  hopelessly 
gone,  and  the  enthusiasm  is  for  a  churchly  organization  with  a 
superstitious  and  fanatical  confidence  in  an  outward  sacra- 
mental magic. 

V.    THE  ETHICAL   FORCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

Any  review  of  the  formal  ethics  of  this  early  Christian  literature 
leaves  the  reader  wondering  how  Christianity  succeeded  in  sur- 
viving the  entire  change  of  emphasis  from  the  message  of  Jesus 
in  the  synoptic  Gospels  and  the  Pauline  and  Johannine  interpre- 
tation of  that  message  to  an  emphasis  upon  things  Jesus  either 
ignored  or  hated. 

The  main  quarrel  Jesus  had  with  the  religious  life  of  his  day 
was  with  the  pharisaic  conception  of  God  as  law-giver,  and  of 
the  religious  life  as  obedience  to  an  outward  legalism,  and  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  the  success  of  a  selfish  temporal  and  ecclesi- 
astical organization.  And  now  before  three  generations  have 
passed  away  these  three  misconceptions  are  seemingly  firmly 
implanted  in  the  fighting  ecclesiastical  organization.  God  was 
already  thought  of  as  only  the  Father  of  the  law-abiding  Chris- 
tian church ;  the  religious  life  was  construed  as  essentially  seeking 
personal  safety  amid  the  magic  of  sacraments,  and  by  conformity 
to  dogma  and  casuistry;  and  the  kingdom  of  God  was  substan- 
tially identified  with  a  priestly  organization;  and  this  elaborate 
misconstruction  was  complete  in  the  time  of  Cyprian. 

At  the  same  time  many  noble  and  striking  passages  show  that 
in  the  midst  of  this  radical  misconception  of  Jesus  and  his 
purpose  there  still  remained  in  the  teaching  of  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, Irenaeus  and  Cyprian,  and  even  Tertullian,  the  power 
of  the  primary  revolution.  Jesus  was  still  a  living  force  in  the 
lives  of  these  and  thousands  of  others.  The  world  could  never 
again  think  exclusively  of  God  in  the  terms  of  pharisaism,  and 
even  the  most  exalted  Stoicism  was  unsatisfactory  in  the  presence 
of  the  actual  ethics  of  Jesus,  and  the  Gospels  were  still  read. 


178  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  very  deification  of  Jesus  compelled  men,  even  when  most 
caught  in  formalism  and  legalism,  to  translate  the  life  and  pur- 
pose of  God  into  the  concepts  of  a  tender  and  loving  humanity. 
So  that  no  clouds  of  dreary  Hellenistic  speculation,  and  no  dream 
of  Roman  imperialism  could  wholly  shut  out  the  forgiveness  of 
the  cross  and  the  absolute  freedom  of  God's  love. 

The  Gospel  story  was  still  imbedded  in  the  paganized  churchly 
life,  and  unconsciously  or  subconsciously  the  message  of  Jesus 
to  the  world  that  God  was  redeeming  moral  purpose  cut  across 
the  formal  dogmatic  contradictions.  Even  while  thousands  pro- 
fessed with  their  lips  the  God  of  Pharisaism  or  the  Absolute  of 
Stoicism,  they  worshipped  with  joy  in  their  hearts  the  God  and 
Father  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Thus  the  transforming  power  of  the  old  enthusiasm  for  God 
as  seen  in  Jesus  Christ  remained  as  a  purifying  ethical  force 
along  many  lines.  And  nowhere  was  it  seen  to  better  advantage 
than  in  the  family  group.  Judaism  had  seemingly  ceased  to 
represent  the  highest  type  of  monogamy  even  in  the  time  of 
Jesus.^  No  doubt  it  was  chiefly  amongst  the  economically 
prosperous  that  this  was  the  case.  But  as  always,  so  here, 
legalism  brought  forth  its  inevitable  fruit.^  No  doubt  then,  as 
always,  the  sexual  relationship  was  relatively  pure  and  whole- 
some among  the  simpler  toiling  masses.  That  this  was  true  even 
in  the  worst  ages  of  Greece  and  Rome  we  need  have  little  doubt. 
Athens  was  not  Greece,  nor  was  Rome  Italy,  any  more  than 
Constantinople  is  Turkey.  Even  in  the  upper  classes  the 
pictures  of  the  satirists  are  not  to  be  taken  too  literally.' 

Though  this  is  true,  however,  it  is  also  true  that  just  as  soon  as 
one  class  is  economically  dependent  upon  another  the  ethical 
standards  in  matters  pertaining  to  sex  sufTer  terribly.  It  is 
impossible  to  conserve  woman's  purity  or  men's  ideals  of  virtue 
amid  a  slave  population,  where  the  slave  women  are  the  helpless 
dependents  upon  the  men.    The  agrarian  slavery  of  old  Rome 

•  Matt.  5  :  27-32. 

'  C/.  Schurer:  "Geschichte  des  Judischcn  Volkcs,"  II,  493-496,  isted,  1898. 

*  Cf.  "Seneca  ad  Marciam,"  13-14. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY   CHURCH      179 

brought  with  it  evils,  but  the  household  slavery  of  predatory 
imperial  Rome  loosened  the  whirlwind  of  luxury  and  abuse.* 

Yet  there  are  evidences  that  not  only  was  this  confined  to  cer- 
tain ranks  of  society,  but  that,  as  Hatch  points  out,^  a  reforma- 
tion was  in  progress  in  the  pagan  world.  Christianity  early  em- 
braced false  and  unworthy  conceptions  of  the  married  state. 
Even  Paul's  utterances  permitted  grave  misconstruction.  Very 
early,  virginity  was  ranked  as  per  se  a  higher  ethical  condition, 
in  utter  contradiction  of  the  higher  and  purer  Jewish  estimate 
of  the  family.  The  story  of  the  virgin-birth  was  interpreted  as 
a  slur  upon  the  married  relationship.' 

These  very  aberrations,  however,  serve  to  show  the  extreme 
reaction  of  the  ethics  of  the  early  church  against  sexual  indul- 
gence. The  indignation  of  Paul  in  his  letters  to  Rome  and 
Corinth  against  laxness  at  this  point,  and  the  thorough-going 
attitude  of  Jesus,*  made  a  marked  impression.  The  early 
Christian  church  stood  firmly  for  a  standard  of  purity  equally 
high  for  man  and  woman,  for  free  and  slave.  The  Hellenic- 
Roman  world  was  not  destitute  of  high  ideals.  Pliny's  letters 
reflect  the  sweetest  devotion  to  his  wife  Calpurnia,  and  many 
families,  no  doubt,  lived  on  the  high  plane  of  Seneca's  teaching. 
Yet  the  demands  of  this  same  society  on  the  growing  boy  or  the 
married  man  were  very  low.  The  actual  result  of  Christian 
teaching  was  the  exaltation  of  an  ideal  strange  and  wellnigh 
undreamt  of  in  a  pagan  philosophy.  The  beautiful  imagery  of 
Paul  ^  was  an  ethical  force  of  great  value. 

To  read  some  writers  one  would  suppose  that  hypocrisy  was 
introduced  into  the  world  by  Christianity.  That  the  exaltation 
of  an  ideal  and  that  fading  enthusiasms  produce  hypocrisy  need 
not  be  gainsaid;  while  still  maintaining  that  the  very  hypocrisy 

^  Cf.  Friedlander,  L.:  "Darstellungen  aus  der  Sittengeschichte  Roms,"  7th 
ed.,  1901,  part  2,  pp.  228-231. 

^  Hatch,  Edwin:  "The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon  the 
Christian  Church,"  2d  ed.,  1891,  pp.  140-170. 

» Tertullian,  "De  Carne  Christi,"  cap.  XVII. 

*Matt.  5  :  27-32. 

*  Eph.  5  :  22-33. 


i8o  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

which  has  so  often  stained  the  page  describing  human  conduct  at 
this  point  is  an  evidence  of  a  heightened  standard  of  thought. 

The  humblest  Christian  was  taught  to  defend  personal  purity 
as  a  fundamental  demand  of  the  new  organization.  In  the 
midst  of  the  foulness  and  sexual  brutalities  of  paganism  a  new 
conception  was  given  birth.  Even  a  beautiful  story  of  the 
Gospel  *  was  probably  omitted  from  the  early  canon  lest  it 
should  hinder  in  the  church's  battle  with  her  deadliest  enemy. 

The  economic  struggle  was  in  those  days  as  fierce  if  not  even 
fiercer  than  to-day.  The  slave  labor  pressed  upon  the  proleta- 
riat with  fearful  force  and  depressing  power.^  In  a  twofold 
manner  the  possessing  class  appropriated  the  product  of  labor, 
on  the  one  hand  by  the  brute  force  of  slavery  and  on  the  other 
by  excluding  freemen  from  the  soil  save  on  the  most  onerous 
terms  of  rental.  In  this  struggle  of  the  proletariat  the  Christian 
church  brought  in  a  new  bond  of  union  between  the  weaker  op- 
pressed workers.  It  bound  together  in  a  religious  enthusiasm 
the  interests  of  both  slave  and  proletariat  freeman.  The  so- 
called  communism  of  the  early  church^  had  no  economic 
foundation,  but  simply  represented  the  revival  of  a  strong  feeling 
of  economic  brotherhood.* 

Any  strong  enthusiasm  that  really  brings  men  into  fellowship 
with  each  other  will  lead  to  a  relative  sharing  of  the  material 
things  of  life.  But  the  Christian  enthusiasm  taught  natural 
helpfulness,  exalted  giving  of  self  and  possessions  for  others' 
sake;  thus  the  oppressed  proletariat  were  bound  together  in  a 
great  organization  for  common  helpfulness  and  mutual  aid  in 
trouble.     The  union  produced  strength.' 

'John  7  :  53-8  :  11. 

'C/.  Mommsen:  "Roemische  Geschichte,"  vol.  11,81,397;  III,  S'O-S".  ^J- 
1889. 

»  Acts  2  :  43-47;   S  :  i""- 

*  Rogge,  C:  "Der  irdische  Besitz  im  Neuen  Testament,"  1897,  pp.  68-76; 
Holtzmann,  Oskar:  "Gutergemeinschaft,"  in  "Zcitschrift  fiir  Kirchengeschichte 
(1894,  edited  by  Brieger),  XIV,  pp.  327-336. 

»Uhlhorn's  "Christliche  Liebesthatigkeit  in  der  alten  Kirrhc,"  Stuttgart, 
1882,  pp.  248-256;  English  translation,  "Christian  Charity  in  the  Ancient 
Church,"  New  York,  1883,  pp.  255-263. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH      i8i 

This  organization  was  not  only  international,  but  exceedingly 
mobile.  The  general  poverty  reflected  in  James  and  in  Acts, 
and  in  the  constant  appeals  for  the  poor  "saints  in  Jerusalem," 
suggest  the  way  in  which  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  weakest 
members  of  the  group  was  fostered,  producing  a  sense  of  fellow- 
ship and  strength  of  great  social  and  ethical  value  in  a  day  of 
such  constant  disintegration  of  social  bonds. 

In  theory,  at  least,  within  the  organization  poverty  was  no 
-disgrace,  for  Jesus  had  been  poor  and  had  called  the  poor 
blessed.     So  that  in  one  circle,  professedly  the  economically  in- 
ferior, the  groups  were  equal  before  God  and  could  claim  amid 
all  degrees  of  poverty  the  equal  possession  of  the  higher  riches. 

In  very  many  forms  the  social  kingdom-aspiration  survived. 
The  church  still  prayed  amid  increasing  compromise  with  the 
existing  social  order,  "Thy  kingdom  come  on  earth."  And 
the  old  apocalyptic  dreams  still  haunted  the  imaginations  of 
the  oppressed,  particularly  in  times  of  stress  and  persecution 
(Apocalypse  of  Peter,  of  Baruch,  etc.).  The  triumph  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical organization  began  increasingly  to  take  the  place  of 
the  hope  for  a  magic  revolution,  judgment,  and  a  new  world. 
As  that  organization  grew  in  power  it  gradually  changed 
from  a  propagandist  society  of  social  and  heavenly  hope  and 
became  itself  an  end.  Its  wide  sweep,  its  powers  of  adapta- 
tion to  many  levels  of  need,  its  conservation  of  so  many  differing 
types  of  value,  made  the  ecclesiastical  organization  a  social  force 
in  the  dwarfed  and  narrowed  lives  of  the  world's  teeming, 
ignorant  millions.  She  caught  up  into  herself  with  splendid 
inconsistency  the  most  diverse  factors  that  were  making  for 
ethical  reformation  and  social  reconstruction. 

In  many  ways  her  attitude  was  highly  anomalous.  Riches 
began  to  be  her  portion,  and  her  power  increased  as  the  influential 
began  to  join  the  Christian  ranks.^    Unlimited  giving  was  her 

*  Cf.  evidence  in  Harnack's  "Die  Mission  und  Ausbreitung  des  Christentums 
in  den  ersten  drei  Jahrhunderten,"  Leipsic,  1902,  pp.  376-407;  English  transla- 
tion by  Moffatt:  "The  Expansion  of  Christianity  in  the  First  Three  Centuries" 
(2  vols.,  New  York,  1904-1905),  vol.  II,  pp.  183-239. 


i82  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

constant  message.  At  the  same  time  all  compulsion  to  give 
would  have  robbed  the  gift  of  its  healing  efficacy.^  Not  all 
could  become  ascetics,  so  compromise  was  again  necessary.  A 
sort  of  voluntary  communism  remained  as  an  ideal,  but  on  the 
other  hand  the  rich  and  powerful  were  special  stewards  of  God 
for  the  church's  sake,  and  need  not  fear  diminishing  estates  if 
they  freely  gave.^  Any  critical  estimate  of  the  economic  and 
ethical  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  private  possession  was 
quite  beyond  the  scope  of  the  church's  thought. 

In  like  manner  the  attitude  toward  slavery  was  utterly  un- 
critical. Slavery  as  slavery  was  not  condemned.  Paul  sent  back 
a  runaway  slave,  but  as  "a  brother,"  ^  and  no  early  Christian 
had  any  m.ore  inkling  of  the  inherent  ethical  wrong  of  exploiting 
a  fellow-being  economically  for  one's  own  ends  than  has  the 
Christian  "sweater"  of  wage  labor  of  to-day.''  It  must  be  con- 
fessed that  slavery  disappeared  not  because  Christianity  ever 
officially  fought  it,  but  because  it  became  economically  wasteful 
as  a  method  of  exploitation  and  so  was  displaced  by  serfdom 
and  the  wage  system.  At  the  same  time  one  reason  why  it 
became  increasingly  unprofitable  was  the  growing  humanity  of 
masters,  in  which  growth  the  Christian  organization  had  a  very 
large  share.  The  canons  of  Elvira^  undertake  to  regulate  the 
treatment  of  slaves  by  the  masters  and  mistresses,  and  as  over 
against  academic  ideals  do  it  more  effectively,  seemingly,  than 
Stoicism.'  The  church  as  such  never  contemplated  the  doing 
away  with  slavery  as  such,'  even  though  Stoicism  had  denounced 
it  as  "contra  naturam."  *  In  fact  the  church  constantly  taught, 
as  did  the  New  Testament  writers,  that  the  slave  was  to  be 

'  Acts  5  :  i-ii. 

'  C/.  Cyprian's  "De  opere  et  eleemosynis,"  especially  chaps.  X  and  XI. 
"Metuis  ne  patrimonium  tuum  forte  deficiat,  si  operari  ex  eo  largiter  cceperis,  et 
nescis,  miser,  quia,  dum  times  ne  res  familiaris  deficit,  vita  ipsa  et  salus  deficiat," 
etc.     (MPL,  IV,  609  B.) 

»  Philemon,  16.  *  I  Cor.  7  :  20-24.  *  5  and  41. 

"Overbeck,  F.:  "Studien  zur  Geschichte  der  altcn  Kirche,"  1875,  pp.  158- 
230. 

^  Rivifere,  Armand:  "L'dglise  et  I'esclavage,"  Paris,  1864. 

'  "Ulpian.  Dig.,"  I,  54,  §  i  (quoted  by  Overbeck,  loc.  cit.,  p.  169). 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   EARLY  CHURCH     183 

obedient  to  the  master  set  over  the  slave/  And  only  gentle 
treatment  of  the  slave  by  the  master  was  demanded.^  The 
slave  of  a  Christian  master  could  only  be  taken  into  the  com- 
munity by  consent  of  the  master,  and  slaves  were  forbidden  to 
ask  the  community  to  buy  them  their  freedom.^  As  might  be 
suspected,  Tertullian  is  especially  insistent  upon  the  submission 
of  slaves/  Chrysostom  taught  that  there  was  a  threefold 
servitude  brought  into  the  world  by  sin,  that  of  woman  to  man, 
man  to  the  master,  and  all  to  the  State,  and  the  slave  relationship 
was  natural  and  permanent/  Slavery  was  the  natural  atmos- 
phere of  life,  and  its  many  drawbacks  and  impossible  consistency 
with  her  highest  ideals  were  not  apparent  to  the  official  church 
then,  any  more  than  the  official  church  to-day  is  aware  of  any 
standing  contradiction  in  the  social  order  of  to-day  and  her 
proclamation  of  brotherhood  and  equality  before  God. 

Slaves,  however,  under  certain  circumstances  might  become 
bishops  and  presbyters.  Thus  Calixtus  rose  to  the  highest 
office  in  Rome.  Hippolytus,  however,  attacks  him  for  many 
things,  and  among  others  for  permitting  marriage  between  a  slave 
and  a  free-born  woman.®  Nor  was  it  customary  to  make  a  slave 
a  presbyter  without  the  consent  of  the  slave's  owner,  as  witness 
the  controversy  between  the  wealthy  Simplicia  and  Basil  and 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus.  The  worst  abuses  were  very  distinctly 
condemned,'  and  thus  the  church  became  in  some  measure  a 
court  of  appeal  for  the  slave. 

Nor  were  there  lacking  individuals  who  saw  the  evil.*  And  it 
is  doubtful  whether  any  organized  protest  on  the  part  of  the 
official  church  would  have  greatly  inured  to  the  benefit  of  the 
slave  population. 

Of  great  ethical  importance  was  the  place  the  church  gave  to 
martyrdom.    In  all   ages  sealing  personal   sincerity   by   the 

*  Eph.  6  :  5-8;  cf.  Col.  3  :  22;  I  Tim.  6  :  i,  and  I  Peter  2  :  18. 

*  Eph.  6:9.  '  Ignatius  ad  Polycarp,  c.  4. 

*  "  De  cor.  mil.,"  c.  13.     "Apologeticus,"  cap.  27;  "  Ad  uxorem,"  II  :  8. 
»  XIX  Homily  on  I  Cor;  cf.  XII  Homily  on  Eph. 

'  Philos.,  IX,  7:9.  ^  "Apostolic  Constitutions,"  4  :  6. 

*  The  Carpocrateans  according  to  Clement  of  Alexandria,  "  Strom.,"  Ill,  2  :  6. 


i84  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

giving  up  of  life  for  the  sake  of  truth  has  exercised  a  great  influ- 
ence. Socrates  became  the  reformer  of  Grecian  thought  by  his 
tragic  death.  In  an  age  of  cowardice  and  great  moral  strain, 
Jesus  died  the  death  of  a  martyr.  The  church  became  extrava- 
gant in  her  estimate  of  martyrdom,  but  it  is  impossible  to  estimate 
the  services  to  moral  sincerity  rendered  by  the  countless  martyrs 
from  all  ages  and  classes  in  the  community.  In  an  age  of  loose 
cosmopolitan  syncretism  there  wsls  set  up  a  claim  for  an  ex- 
clusive faith,  and  its  povi^er  over  men  was  proved  by  their  suffer- 
ings and  their  death.  The  world  slowly  sought  higher  ethical 
levels,  and  in  the  movement  upward  the  Christian  church  gave 
the  longed-for  stamp  of  reality  and  genuineness  to  the  profes- 
sions of  this  seeking  faith.  The  actual  power  of  religion  was 
dramatically  set  forth. 

The  international  character  of  the  Christian  movement  gave 
rise  to  special  emphasis  upon  certain  distinct  virtues.  Foremost 
among  these  to  be  singled  out  was  that  of  hospitality.  As  one 
sees  in  both  the  "Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles"  and  in 
"Hermas,"  not  to  speak  of  later  writers,  this  hospitality  was 
subject  to  abuse.  Yet  no  abuse  quenched  the  virtue,  and  far 
down  into  church  history  Christians  demanded  and  received 
hospitality  simply  because  they  were  Christians.  This  not  only 
bound  the  church  together,  but  it  reacted  upon  its  entire  life 
and  gave  it  breadth  and  strength.  The  church  consisting  so 
largely  as  was  the  case  of  the  non-possessing  class,  had  a  large 
number  evidently  wandering  about  seeking  economic  oppor- 
tunity. 

The  sympathies  of  this  somewhat  ignorant  and  narrow- visioned 
membership  made  up  of  the  less  successful  classes  broadened  and 
deepened  under  the  training  of  a  world-wide  hope  and  a  con- 
stantly increasing  knowledge  of  the  actual  world.  If  the  last 
chapter  of  Romans  be  genuine,  and  it  is  exceedingly  likely,  it  is 
evidence  that  the  early  Christians  wandered  like  the  Jews  from 
city  to  city  with  great  ease.  They  thus  learnt  statesmanship  and 
interest  in  world-wide  movements  as  they  took  part  in  the 
establishment  of  a  spiritual  autocracy,  which  thankfully  used 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH     185 

every  help  toward  reaching  the  somewhat  unfortunate  goal  of 
imperial  power. 

The  social  bond  was  strong.  A  common  suffering  and  isola- 
tion, even  at  the  best  of  times,  compelled  the  early  Christians, 
as  it  now  compels  German  Social  Democrats,  to  trust  to  each 
other  for  companionship  and  social  intercourse.  The  very  ec- 
clesiastical politics  that  soon  usurped  a  large  part  of  the  time 
of  both  leaders  and  people  gave  a  certain  seriousness  and 
purpose  to  the  social  bond,  lacking  in  other  more  superficial 
contacts. 

It  was  thus  a  steady  pressure  from  within  and  from  without 
that  kept  the  growing  organization  strong  and  united.  It 
meant  a  great  deal  to  be  cast  out  as  a  heretic,  for  unless  one 
could,  like  Marcion  or  the  Montanists,  gather  a  wide  following, 
the  heretic  was  lost  to  social  intercourse  with  the  old  heathen 
world,  and  was  deprived  of  all  friendships  in  the  new  world  rising 
in  power  and  influence  every  day.  Only  the  very  strongest  can 
stand  alone  against  their  social  world,  and  when  a  Christian  had 
given  up  his  old  pagan  atmosphere,  to  be  thrust  out  from  the 
new-found  circle  was  to  die  the  death. 

Although  a  democracy  that  tolerates  economic  dependence 
of  one  class  upon  another,  as  the  early  Christian  democracy  per- 
mitted slavery,  can  at  best  only  be  a  foreshadowing  of  things 
to  be,  yet  in  Christianity  were  many  elements  of  democracy. 
The  communion  of  saints  meant  still  even  to  Cyprian  the  democ- 
racy of  the  congregation.*  Part  of  the  educative  force  of  Chris- 
tianity was  the  self-governing  character  of  the  more  primitive 
congregations.  As  the  trades-unions  are  educating  men  to 
capacity  for  concerted  action  and  wise  compromise  in  behalf  of 
united  effort,  so  early  Christianity  was  training  men  for  the 
time  when,  even  while  probably  yet  in  a  minority,  they  should 
be  asked  to  share  the  responsibility  of  helping  to  govern  the 
empire. 

Thus  in  spite  of  vast  changes  for  the  worse  in  the  theoretical 
ethics,  and  in  spite  of  great  lowering  of  the  spiritual-ethical  en- 
*  Cyprian,  Epis.  5  :  4. 


i86  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

thusiasm,  enough  of  primitive  faith  in  God  as  the  Father  of  Our 
Lord  Jesus  remained  to  give  sweep  and  reach  to  the  onrushing 
conquest  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  movement  which  from  now 
on  we  may  call  the  full-grown  Roman  Catholic  church. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH  AND 
ITS  ETHICS 


Note  0}  Introduction. — I.  Athanasius  and  Monasticism — II.  The  Mes- 
sage of  the  Great  Preachers— III.  The  Monastery  and  Asceti- 
cism—IV.  The  Bishop's  Church  and  Culture— V.  The  Bishop's 
Church  and  the  Cult  and  Its  Ethics— VI.  The  Church  and  Her 
Theology— VII.    The  Ethics  of  the  Councils. 


NOTE  OF  INTRODUCTION 

To  trace  the  growth  of  an  imperial,  ecclesiastical,  paternal,  and 
benevolent  tyranny  from  the  simple  teachings  of  Jesus  is  one  of 
the  strange  tasks  set  before  the  historian.  Jesus  stood  so  abso- 
lutely for  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  man  that  it  is  difficult 
to  even  connect  him  with  a  strong  centralized  imperialism. 
One  by  one  Jesus  was  confronted  by  all  the  various  manifesta- 
tions of  authority  which  hedge  about  the  normal  human  life, 
and  over  against  them  all,  while  recognizing  their  place  and 
function,  he  asserted  the  ultimate  supremacy  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
The  spiritual  man  might  have  to  abandon  father  and  mother, 
refuse  to  follow  scribe  or  priest;  he  must  realize  his  lordship 
over  days  and  rites  and  past  commandments.  Tradition, 
sacred  and  useful,  must  yet  yield  to  the  pressure  of  a  new  com- 
mandment born  of  the  inward  sense  of  sonship  with  God.  The 
State  had  its  function  and  we  were  to  render  to  Caesar  the  things 
that  belong  to  Caesar,  but  in  case  of  conflict  the  spiritual  man 
must  resolutely  assert  his  freedom,  and  if  need  be  do  as  Jesus  did, 
and  die  as  an  expression  of  final  supremacy  over  life  and  death. 

This  freedom  of  the  son  of  God  was  a  cardinal  teaching  of 
Paul  and  echoes  more  or  less  clearly  in  all  the  canonical  literature. 
Yet  not  three  centuries  had  passed  away,  and  this  supremacy  was 

187 


i88  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

yielded  to  the  claim  of  a  priestly,  sacramental  organization  fight- 
ing for  power  and  place  in  every  corner  of  the  civilized  world  of 
its  day.  Thus  the  Catholic  Christian  of  the  third  century  stood 
in  a  twofold  attitude.  As  over  against  the  world,  the  State,  the 
forms  of  faith  acknowledged  by  the  ages,  he  felt  himself  free.  The 
cowering  slave  was  raised  to  a  new  manhood,  and  the  seal  of  that 
freedom  was  the  blood  of  a  long  list  of  past  martyrs.  In  baptism 
the  sinner  passed  from  slavery  to  sin  and  death  to  the  new  life 
of  forgiveness  and  virtue.  The  church  was  the  brotherhood  of 
the  forgiven  life;  the  little  community  was  the  family  of  God. 

It  is  out  of  this  family  relationship  that  the  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  rose  quietly  and  naturally.  The  temporary  authority  of 
the  family  was  elevated  into  a  permanent  pressure  upon  the  indi- 
vidual.* The  time  came  when  for  the  ordinary  "lay"  Christian 
there  were  no  adult  years.  He  remained  a  "  child  of  the  church," 
the  priest  became  a  permanent  "father."  The  temporary  func- 
tion of  teacher  became  a  permanent  status.  If  over  against  the 
world  there  were  indeed  freedom,  as  toward  the  church  with  its 
magic  sacraments  there  could  only  be  one  attitude,  that  of 
humble,  reverential  submission  to  its  overwhelming  authority. 

The  transition  did  not  take  place  without  protest  and  schism. 
The  Gnostics,  as  well  as  Marcion,  Montanus,  Novatius,  Donatus, 
and  many  others  instinctively  rebelled,  but  the  sweep  of  a  great 
movement  was  against  them.  The  assertion  of  this  supreme 
authority  of  an  organization  over  the  individual  could  not  be 
made  without  many  a  compromise,  and  ever  again  the  student 
notes  the  surrender  of  this  or  that  secondary  interest  in  favor 
of  the  great  primary  demand  for  submission  to  the  unity  of  the 
sacramental  organization. 

'  The  Roman  conception  of  the  family  was  always  highly  aristocratic.  The 
potestas  patria  survived  from  the  old  tribal  agrarianism  long  after  the  essential 
economic  condition  had  changed.  In  the  Hellenistic  world  Stoic  notions  of 
jus  naturale  gradually  undermined  this  conception,  but  it  passed  naturally  into 
the  church,  the  ecdesia  taking  the  father's  place  of  absolute  power.  Cf.  Morey, 
Wm.  C:  "Outlines  of  Roman  Law,"  New  York,  1893,  6th  ed.,  pp.  23,  129^.; 
see  also  Ferrero,  G.:  "The  Greatness  and  Decline  of  Rome,"  New  York,  1907 
(Englbh  translation  by  Zimmern),  vol.  I,  pp.  5,  6. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH  189 

It  was  no  accident  that  this  imperial  claim  should  increasingly 
be  identified  with  the  fortunes  of  the  Roman  church.  Even 
while  the  great  drama  of  dogmatic  construction  was  being 
seemingly  played  out  at  Nicsea,  Constantinople,  or  in  Asia 
Minor,  the  real  force  at  work  was  that  ambition  for  world-wide 
supremacy  which  ever  nerved  the  Christian  heart. 

That  ambition  was,  however,  far  better  served  by  the  mild, 
practical,  skilful  statesmen  of  Rome  than  by  the  quarrelling, 
hair-splitting  theologians  of  the  Eastern  church.  It  was  in 
Rome  that  religious  syncretism  was,  on  the  one  hand,  demand- 
ing religious  unity  in  the  interests  of  threatened  empire,  and 
on  the  other  willing  to  make  large  concessions  to  every  religious 
cult  that  did  not  too  exclusively  press  its  claims. 

The  simple  faith  of  Jesus  was  not  the  force  that  battled  for 
political  supremacy,  but  an  elaborate  religious  syncretism  into 
which  had  entered  elements  of  paganism  from  Egypt,  Persia, 
Babylon,  Greece,  and  Rome.  The  strength  of  the  Catholic 
Bishop's  church  did  not  consist  simply  in  its  purer  morals,  its 
more  certain  faith,  its  brighter  promise,  and  its  more  tender, 
loving  trust  in  a  one  redeeming  God.  These  were  its  better 
portion  and  its  nobler  advantage,  but  as  a  matter  of  history  it 
met  the  guilds  of  Egyptian  Isis  and  Serapis  cults  by  a  more 
closely  knit  guild  organization.  It  was  confronted  by  the  sacra- 
mental symbolism  of  the  Magna  Mater,  and  evolved  a  virgin 
devotion  and  a  sacramental  system  simpler  and  more  effective. 
It  found  itself  threatened  by  the  cult  of  Mithra  and  the  weird 
mysteries  of  the  sun-worship,  and  caught  the  imagination  to 
which  Mithraism  ministered  by  an  ascetic  practice  as  compell- 
ing and  a  priestly  organization  even  more  effective. 

It  is  now  seemingly  quite  impossible  to  always  say  whence  came 
the  machinery  or  apparatus  of  the  religious  life  in  the  Nicene 
period.  Undoubtedly  much  belonged  already  to  all  cults, 
having  been  borrowed  by  them  from  still  older  strata  of  religious 
expression.  Probably  both  Egypt  and  Babylon  gave  much  to 
the  common  tradition.  From  the  oriental  mystery-cults  seem 
to  have  come  the  tonsure,  the  white-robed  priest,  the  matins, 


I90  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

nones  and  vespers,  bells,  litany,  solemn  processions,  the  mingled 
wine  and  water,  the  sacred  wafer,  the  sacramental  magic,  the 
Easter  feast,  the  Christmas  feast  to  the  child-God. 

They  apparently  entered  Christianity  at  many  points,  but 
Alexandria  seems  especially  prominent  as  the  meeting-place  of 
the  cults  of  Isis,  Magna  Mater,  and  Mithra.  (See  full  literature 
cited,  "Hellenistic  Preparation,"  p.  9.) 

From  the  synagogue  may  have  come  the  sacredness  of  a 
weekly  day,  the  assembly  for  instruction  and  religious  inspira- 
tion, the  common  prayer,  reading  of  sacred  books,  the  singing  of 
psalms  and  hymns,  collections  for  the  poor,  the  sermon,  and  the 
relatively  democratic  organization  of  the  congregation. 

How  far  the  dogmatic  and  moral  reconstruction  of  the  Chris- 
tian message  was  influenced  by  the  weightiest  and  most  serious 
rival  in  popular  affection  which  the  Christian  organization  had, 
namely  the  Mithra  cult,  we  shall  probably  never  know,  for  the 
elaborate  theology  and  liturgy  of  this  jemarkable  synthesis 
from  the  Orient  have,  it  is  to  be  feared,  been  wellnigh  entirely 
lost.  Only  the  monuments  and  inscriptions  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made  (page  26)  tell  us  of  its  wide  influence. 
Some  things,  however,  suggest  so  close  a  parallel  that  it  would 
be  strange,  indeed,  if  much  more  was  not  common  property, 
perhaps,  of  the  whole  religious  world  of  that  day.  Both  Mithra- 
worship  and  the  Old  Catholic  church  had  in  common  sacra- 
ments, holy  water,  called  members  "brothers"  and  the  older 
ones  "fathers,"  had  baptism  or  lustration,  a  communion  feast, 
with  holy  wine  and  water  and  a  wafer.  Both  had  introduced 
monastic  vows  for  men  and  women.  Both  had  a  "Pontifex 
Maximus."  Both  had  grades  of  membership,  withholding  the 
sacramental  elements  from  the  lower  grades.  Both  taught 
eternal  life  and  made  sacramental  grace  a  preparation  for  it. 
Both  laid  emphasis  upon  purity  of  conduct,  and  especially  sexual 
purity,  as  a  condition  of  blessedness.  Both  claimed  in  rite  and 
sacrament  to  give  strength  for  the  battle  with  evil.  Both  called 
the  members  "milites"  or  soldiers  of  virtue.  Both  were  aggres- 
sive, convert-making  organizations,  appealing  to  the  economi- 


THE   OLD   CATHOLIC   OR   BISHOP'S  CHURCH    191 

cally  oppressed  and  the  down-trodden,  and  finally  both  found 
in  Germany  and  the  north  of  Europe  their  most  splendid  field 
for  propaganda  and  also  looked  for  a  final  triumph  of  their  cult.* 

That  the  ethics  of  Christianity  were  influenced  we  see  from 
the  fact  that  Tertullian  holds  up  the  refusal  of  the  "soldier  of 
Mithra"  to  be  crowned  because  he  is  to  be  crowned  by  Mithra, 
as  an  example  to  Christian  soldiers  to  refuse  the  pagan  triumphal 
crown  because  awaiting  the  crown  of  Jesus. 

The  Bishop's  Church  simply  swept  into  itself  all  the  elements 
of  the  successful  religious  life  about  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
Some  of  these  elements  were  good,  some  were  relatively  indiffer- 
ent until  identified  with  the  essence  of  the  religious  life,  others 
were  harmful  and  debasing.  The  Christianity  of  the  Nicene 
period  was,  on  the  whole,  a  wholesome  syncretism,  powerful 
enough  to  organize  again  the  religious  and  even  intellectual  life 
of  a  sadly  distracted  world. 

It  ministered  to  the  ethical  longing  of  the  sinful,  it  satisfied 
by  cultural  pomp  the  aesthetic  sense  of  Roman  and  Greek.  It 
took  uncritically  from  all  what  it  needed  for  its  purpose.  It 
had  a  more  potent  ethical  life  than  any  rival,  so  that  at  last 
Constantine  was  compelled  by  political  necessity  to  use  it  as 
the  one  organization  with  sufficient  vitality  and  unity  to  bind 
together  the  tottering  empire.  Hence  Mithra-worship  was  pro- 
scribed and  persecuted  and,  save  for  a  brief  resurrection  under 
Julian,  the  so-called  apostate,  it  seemingly  disappeared,  because 
in  part,  evidently,  it  had  been  practically  taken  up  into  the 
Bishop's  church. 

The  oriental  cults  were  divided.  There  was  the  Isis  cult, 
the  Mystery  of  the  Great  Mother,  as  well  as  the  Mystery  of 
Mithra  and  many  other  lesser  cults.  They  all  taught  a  sub- 
stantial speculative  monotheism  and  linked  religion  with  types 
of  ethical  life.  All  had  their  priesthood,  their  judgments  after 
death,  with  heaven  and  hell.    All  sought  dominance  in  the 

*  Tertullian  "  De  praescriptione  hasreticorum,"  caput  XL,  and  "  De  corona," 
caput  XV.  Tertullian  attributes  the  resemblance  to  the  wiles  of  an  imitating 
devil,  careless  of  the  fact  that  Mithra  was  older  than  Christ. 


192  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Roman  State.  It  was  recognized  on  all  hands  that  the  imperial 
power  was  a  prize  worth  having.  Long  before  Christ  the  old 
paganism  of  Italy  had  given  way  and  the  population  turned  to  all 
the  varied  superstitions  of  the  Orient  for  help.*  The  emperors 
sought  successively  among  these  cults  for  a  national  imperial 
religion.  Vespasian  built  a  temple  to  the  Mater  Magna  at 
Herculaneum,  but  even  imperial  favor  could  not  give  her  a 
monopoly.  So  the  Flavians  gave  their  support  to  Isis,  and  at 
one  time  under  the  Antonines  her  triumph  might  have  seemed 
assured.  But  then  Mithra  was  popular  among  the  soldiers,  and 
the  cult  suited  the  robuster  Roman  temper  better  than  the  gentle 
Egyptian  Isis  cult.  Then  with  dramatic  suddenness  Christian- 
ity became  the  heir  of  them  all,  and  even  though  only  a  minority 
of  her  population  could  by  any  possibility  be  called  Christian, 
circumstances  compelled  the  state  to  establish  the  Roman 
Catholic  organization  to  the  absolute  and  intolerant  exclusion  of 
her  religious  rivals  with  which  the  state  had  so  long  coped.' 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  many  reasons  for  this 
triumph,  but  in  studying  the  ethics  of  this  period  it  must  be 
constantly  remembered  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  new  world 
imperialism  whose  life  and  hope  were  very  far  removed  from  the 
ideals  of  Jesus  and  Paul.  For  the  kingdom-dream  of  a  holy 
community  of  loving  brethren  was  substituted  the  vision  of  a 
triumphant  ecclessiastical  organization;  for  the  spiritual  inde- 
pendence of  the  loving  heart  was  substituted  the  reverent  sub- 
mission of  the  worshipper  to  a  mystic  authority;  for  the  freedom 
and  joy  of  forgiven  sonship  with  God  was  placed  the  attitude  of 
penitent  lowly  seeking  of  magic  sacramental  purity;  for  the  gift 
of  a  present  eternal  life  was  substituted  the  rewards  and  penalties 

•  Already  in  191  B.  C.  a  decree  of  the  Senate  welcomed  the  Magna  Mater. 
"Roeman  Festivals,"  p.  70,  quoted  by  Dill,  Sam.:  "Roman  Society  from  Nero 
to  Marcus  Aurelius,"  2d  ed.,  London  1905,  p.  550.  See  also  Mommsen,  Th.: 
"Rcemische  Geschichte,"  8th  ed.,  Berlin,  1889,  vol.  II,  4  :  12,  pp.  411-423. 

»C/.  Harnack,  Adolf:  "Kirche  und  Staat  bis  zur  Grundung  der  Staats- 
kirche,"  in  "Die  Kultur  der  Gegcnwart,"  edited  by  P.  Ilinncbcrg,  Berlin  and 
Leipsic,  1906,  part  I,  4.  Section  "Die  christliche  Religion,"  ist  half 
"Geschichte  dor  christlichcn  Religion,"  pp.  129-158. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH     193 

of  a  hell,  heaven,  and  purgatory,  described  in  an  imagery  bor- 
rowed almost  in  its  entirety  from  pagan  mysteries. 

How  far  the  change  from  an  inner  spiritual  brotherhood  to  a 
secular  world-conquering  power  had  gone  is  seen  in  the  mechan- 
ical definition  and  treatment  of  sin  and  in  the  elaborate  ecclesi- 
astical machinery  for  its  forgiveness,  as  well  as  in  the  extraor- 
dinary claims  of  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  This  change  of 
emphasis  resulted  also  in  the  relative  displacement  of  the  ethical 
interest  by  metaphysical  and  political  questions.  The  energies  of 
the  official  church  were  no  longer  bent  upon  the  question  of  how, 
in  the  midst  of  a  sinful,  ignorant  generation,  a  holy  community 
might  be  built  up,  but  on  how  an  artificial  unity,  only  useful 
for  political  purposes,  might  be  preserved  on  the  basis  of  meta- 
physical definition.  This  was  the  theme  of  the  Nicene  council. 
It  is  one  of  the  sad  commentaries  upon  the  Christianity  that 
claims  Jesus  as  its  founder  that  the  abstruse  and  perfectly  in- 
comprehensible metaphysics  of  the  Nicene  creed  should  still  be 
regarded  as  the  bulwark  of  truth  by  so  many  communions, 
while  nearly  all  that  Jesus  really  stood  for  is  openly  neglected. 

Yet  amidst  this  declension  there  still  rang  out  the  message  of 
a  lofty  devotion  to  inward  holiness,  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  a 
high  and  spiritual  ethics. 

I.      ATHANASIUS   AND   MONASTICISM 

This  we  see  clearly  in  the  life  and  work  of  Athanasius,^  who 
has  become  for  so  many  the  incarnation  of  Christian  orthodoxy. 
Athanasius  was,  however,  far  more  than  the  great  dogmatic 

'  Athanasius,  Archbishop  of  Alexandria,  was  born  probably  in  Alexandria 
somewhere  between  296  and  298.  Cf.  art.  "Athanasius,"  by  F.  Loofs,  in 
Herzog-Hauck's  "  Realencyklopildie,"  vol.  II  (1897),  pp.  194-205,  English 
translation,  New  York,  1908,  vol.  I,  pp.  343-346  (in  the  New  Schaff-Herzog). 
He  was  closely  associated  with  Bishop  Alexander  and  became  his  successor. 
He  wrote  his  "Operationes  contra  Gentes"  before  319  (Migne,  Vita).  The 
Synod  of  Nica;a  was  in  325.  Five  times  he  was  in  exile,  fleeing  from  his  political 
and  ecclesiastical  foes:  From  July  11,  335,  to  November  23,  337,  after  the 
Synod  of  Tyre,  whence  he  fled  to  Trier.  Again  he  fled,  on  March  19,  339,  to 
Rome,  only  to  return  October  21,  346.     A  third  time,  when  Julian  ascended 


194  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

theologian  and  untiring  defender  of  a  theological  formula. 
There  was  in  Athanasius  a  profoundly  vivid  revival  of  the 
old  dream  of  a  religious  holy  fellowship.  The  concept  "re- 
ligious" had  been  indeed  already  largely  construed  into  intel- 
lectual and  metaphysical  exactness  of  belief,  but  such  a  construc- 
tion did  not  exhaust  its  content  for  Athanasius,  even  though  such 
exactness  had  become  for  him  as  for  his  age  a  sine  qua  non. 

Two  things  make  Athanasius  of  special  interest  to  us.  Quite 
apart  from  the  disputed  authorship  of  the  "Life  of  St.  Antony,"  * 

the  throne,  he  fled  to  the  monks  of  the  Thebaid  on  February  9,  356,  to  remain 
until  February  21,  362,  and  to  the  same  refuge  he  betook  himself  in  the  same  year, 
October  24,  362,  to  remain  until  September  5,  363.  The  last  exile  was  short, 
from  October  5,  365,  to  January  31,  366,  and  he  remained  then  in  Alexandria 
until  his  death  on  May  2,  373.  (These  dates  are  all  still  in  discussion,  but  are 
approximately  correct).  For  a  full  list  of  his  genuine,  spurious,  and  uncertain 
writings,  see  Archibald  Robinson,  in  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol. 
IV,  pp.  Ixiii-lvi,  and  Migne's  "Patrologia  Grseca,"  vol.  XXV,  'Animadver- 
siones  in  vitam  et  scripta  S.  Athanasii,"  pp.  clvi-clxxxiv.  For  the  genuine 
character  of  "Contra  Gentes,"  cf.  Loofs'  article  in  Herzog-Hauck,  and  for  the 
full  discussion  of  the  vita  S.  Anthonii,  see  the  literature  given  in  foot-note  below. 
For  our  purposes  have  been  consulted  as  the  books  of  most  interest  to  us,  "  Oratio 
contra  Gentes"  (X670S  icari  'EWi^vuv),  "De  Incarnatione  Verbi  Dei"  (\6yos 
iTfpl  ivav6po)irr)a€b)s  toO  X6701;),  "Apologia  contra  Arianos,"  "Epistola  ad 
Episcopos  /Egypti  et  Libyas,"  "Apologia  ad  Constantium,"  "Apologia  de  fuga 
sua,"  "Historia  Arianorum  et  epistolae  ad  Monachos,"  "Epistola  ad  Serapionem 
de  Morte  Arii." 

Translations  of  selected  writings  by  Archibald  Robinson,  in  the  "Nicene  and 
Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  edited  by  Schaff  and  Wace,  vol.  IV.  For  the  list  of  best 
texts,  see  F.  Loofs,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  II  (1897),  p. 
194,  English  translation,  vol.  I  (1908),  p.  346,  or  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene 
Fathers,"  vol.  IV,  p.  xi;  also  the  introduction  to  Migne,  vol.  25,  of  the 
"Patrologia  Graica,"  which  text  is  the  one  consulted  in  this  work. 

'  For  discussion  of  the  question  of  the  authorship,  see  Weingarten,  H.:  "Der 
Ursprung  des  Monchthums  im  nachconstantinischen  Zeitalter,"  Gotha,  1877 
(appeared  first  in  the  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Kirchengeschichte"  (Brieger's),  I  (1877), 
PP-  i~3S'>  S45~S74.  reviewed  by  Hilgenfeld,  in  "Die  Zeitschrift  fiir  wissenschaft- 
liche  Theologie,"  XXI  (1878),  pp.  139-150,  by  J.  Cropp,  in  "  Jahrbiicher  fiir 
deutsche  Theologie,"  XXIII  (1878),  pp.  342-346,  and  Lucius,  P.  E.:  "Die 
Quellcn  der  alteren  Gcschichte  des  agypti.schen  Monchtums,"  pp.  163-19S,  in 
"Zeitschrift  fiir  Kirchengeschichte,"  Th.  Brieger,  VII  (1885);  also  Gass,  in 
"Geschichte  der  chrisllichen  Ethik,"  I  (1881),  pp.  121-125,  and  his  article,  "Zur 
Frage  vom  Ursprung  des  Monchthums,"  in  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Kirchengeschichte," 
II  (1878),  pp.  254-275;    Hase,  K.:    "Das  Leben  des  heiligen  Antonius,"  in 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    195 

in  Athanasius  we  see  the  first  signs  of  a  linking  of  monastic 
asceticism  to  the  world-purpose  of  the  Christian  hierarchy; 
and  in  Athanasius  is  also  found  the  identification  of  the  Logos- 
theology  with  the  ethical  content  of  the  redemption  by  an  in- 
carnation of  the  divine  life  in  the  historical  Jesus/  with  the 
ultimate  subordination  or  loss  of  the  principal  interest  in  the 
Logos-conception. 

Whether  Athanasius  wrote  the  "Vita  Antonii"  is  still  in  dis- 
pute. It  is  certainly  far  below  the  intellectual  level  of  his  un- 
doubted works,  and  it  would  be  a  relief  to  place  the  "Life" 
among  the  forged  romances  in  which  the  age  abounded.  More- 
over, the  simple-minded  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  ("Oratio,"  21) 
might  easily,  nine  years  after  Athanasius's  death,  accept  as  genu- 
ine even  a  rank  forgery.  But  whether  this  is  so  or  not,  Athana- 
sius stood  in  intimate  relationship  with  the  monks  of  Egypt. 
He  shared  their  world  of  demons  and  wonders.^  He  overcame 
their  distinctly  anti-clerical  feeling,^  and  bound  them  and  the 
whole  monastic  development  to  the  world-purpose  of  the  sacra- 
mental imperialism.  When  Athanasius  himself  was  raised  to  the 
episcopate  it  was  as  "one  of  the  ascetics."  *  To  Egypt  he  fled 
for  safety,  and  with  the  ascetic  ideal  he  linked  his  conception 
of  redemption.  There  is  thus  in  Athanasius  a  transference  of 
emphasis.     The  Alexandrian  school  is  given  an  ethical  interpre- 

the  "Jahrbiicher  fur  protestantische  Theologie,"  VI  (1880),  pp.  418-448; 
Eichhorn,  Albert:  "Athanasii  de  Vita  ascetica  testimonia  collecta  Dissertatio 
theologica,"  Halle,  1886;  Loofs's  art.  on  "Athanasius,"  in  Herzog - Hauck's 
"Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  II  (1897),  pp.  194-205,  English  translation  ("The 
New  Scha£f-Herzog,"  New  York,  1908),  vol.  I,  pp.  343-346;  Keim,  Theod.: 
"Aus  dem  Urchristenthum,"  vol.  I  (Zurich,  1878),  pp.  204-220;  Israel,  W.: 
"Die  Vita  S.  Hilarius  des  Hieronymus  als  Quelle  fur  die  Anfange  des  Monch- 
thums  kritisch  untersucht,"  in  "Zeitschrift  fiir  wissenschaftliche  Theologie" 
(1880),  pp.  129-165;  Gwatkin,  H.  M.:  "Studies  in  Arianism"  (1882),  pp.  98- 
103. 
'  C/".    Harnack,    A.:    "Lehrbuch    der   Dogmengeschichte,"    vol.  II  (1894), 

PP- 155-273- 

^  "Contra  Gentes,"  §15:5;    18  :  4;    25  :  5;   and  many  other  passages. 

^  Cf.  "Epist.  ad  Dracontium,"  XLIX;  see  also  Griitzmacher  "Pachomius 
und  das  alteste  Klosterleben,"  52-64. 


196  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

tation  that  marks  a  distinct  advance,  at  least  over  Origen's  con- 
ception of  redemption. 

These  two  conceptions,  the  monastic-ascetic  and  the  ethical- 
social,  are  never  brought  in  church  history  into  any  real  unity. 
On  the  one  hand  the  "Life  of  St.  Anthony"  teaches  a  crass 
eudoemonistic  ethics.  In  exchange  for  the  pleasures  and  joys 
of  a  short  life  the  monk  receives  the  eternal  joys  that  do  not  pass 
away.^  The  eudaemonism  is  only  softened  by  the  characteriza- 
tion of  the  "  goods  "  that  are  thus  acquired,  "  Why  acquire  those 
things  which  we  cannot  take  away  with  us?  Let  us  rather 
acquire  those  things  which  we  can  take  with  us — that  is,  pru- 
dence, justice,  temperance,  courage,  understanding,  love,  kind- 
ness to  the  poor,  faith  in  Christ,  freedom  from  wrath,  hospitality. 
If  we  possess  these  things  we  shall  find  them  0}  themselves  prepar- 
ing for  us  a  welcome  in  the  land  of  the  meek-hearted,"  ^  For 
Anthony  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  were  to  be  conquered,  and  not 
simply  the  flesh  overcome.^  For  Athanasius  the  flesh  was  not 
in  itself  evil.  He,  in  fact,  expressly  condemns  "  certain  Greeks" 
who,  not  knowing  Christ,  "have  ascribed  to  evil  a  certain  sub- 
stantive and  independent  existence."  *  Whereas  Athanasius 
argues  that  matter  cannot  in  itself  be  evil,  as  all  is  the  creation  of 
God.^^  The  absolute  monism  that  excludes  all  dualism  is  de- 
-C^lT^ended  in  the  same  treatise,*  The  following  of  Christ  is  a  work 
or  labor  whose  reward  is  eternal  life,  and  Judas  in  one  night 
destroys  all  his  labor  and  loses  his  reward.''  Although  the  real 
individualistic  selfishness  of  this  conception  of  salvation  is  not 
plain  to  Athanasius,  yet  personally  he  sees  in  the  monastic 
development  a  nobler  and  more  social  purpose  than  the  salvation 
of  one's  own  soul.  It  is  for  him  also  a  dramatic  sermon  to  the 
pleasure-loving.  "For  let  him  that  will  go  and  see  the  proof  of 
virtue  in  the  virgins  of  Christ  and  in  the  young  men  that  follow 

'§§16,17. 

*§  I7>  "Vita  S.  Antonii "  (italics  ours),  Newman's  translation. 

'  §  5.  *  "Contra  Gentes,"  §  6  :  i.  °  "Contra  Gcntcs,"  §6:3, 

"  "Contra  Gcntcs,"  §  7  :  1-5. 

^  §  18,  "Vita  S.  Antonii." 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH     197 

holy  chastity."  ^  And  no  doubt  this  apologetic  value  was  very 
great  indeed. 

At  the  same  time  the  monastic  conception  of  the  Christian 
life  was  probably  a  greater  danger  to  real  Christianity  than 
Arianism,  and  Athanasius  is  quite  Wind  to  the  inherent  impossi- 
bility of  reconciling  the  two  ideals.  The  social-ethical  ideal 
which  Jesus  proclaimed  under  the  head  of  the  reign  of  God 
appears,  nevertheless,  in  Athanasius's  conception  of  redemption, 
which  is  fundamentally  a  renewal  of  the  world  and  humanity  by 
a  new  creative  indwelling.  Nor  is  this  wrought  simply  physi- 
cally or  mechanically  or  metaphysically,  but  by  the  revelation 
of  the  ethical  life.^  Men  once  more  are  enabled  to  see  God 
in  human  life  fully  revealed.^  Thus  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos 
was  given  a  changed  significance,  and  Athanasius  identified  the 
two  interests,  the  ethical-social  interest  with  the  metaphysical 
interest,  for  from  his  point  of  view  Jesus  had  to  be  fully  God  in  a 
metaphysical  sense  in  order  to  reveal  him  fully.^ 

With  the  dogmatic  question  we  are  not  here  concerned,  but 
when  Athanasius  attacks  heathenism  it  is  always  along  ethical 
lines;  and  if  "impious  opinions"  are  as  evil  in  his  sight  as  the 
unethical  life,  it  is  because  he  could  not  believe  an  ethical  life 
could  be  built  upon  aught  save  what  he  regarded  as  the  only 
sound  opinion.  Hence  he  was  willing  to  stake  all  on  the  struggle 
with  Arius.     "It  is  our  all,"  he  himself  exclaimed. 

To  understand  the  attitude  of  the  organized  church  to  the 
monastic-ascetic  ideal  it  must  be  carefully  resolved  into  its 
elements.  Asceticism  in  a  broad  sense  means  simply  "  training." 
Any  one  who  truly  seeks  from  day  to  day  to  subject  the  lower 
impulses  to  the  higher  purpose  is  in  this  sense  an  "ascetic." 
For  Athanasius,  for  instance,  sin  consisted  in  "the  rejection  of 
better  things,"  ^  and  the  Christian  life  was  a  struggle  upward. 

'  §  48  :  2,  "De  Incarnatione  Verbi  Dei." 

*  §  7,  "De  Incarnatione  Verbi  Dei." 

'  14  :  2,  "De  Incarnatione  Verbi  Dei." 

*  This  is  best  brought  out  in  the  "Four  Discourses  against  the  Arians,"  particu- 
larly in  II  chap.  17  :  25-30. 

^§5:2,  "Contra  Gentes." 


198  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Yet  it  is  easy  to  see  that  monasticism  was  more  than  that.  It 
rested  upon  the  conception  of  virginity  as  a  good  in  itself.  This 
notion  was  wholly  foreign  to  Jewish  thinking.  Not  even  in 
Paul  (c/.  p.  179)  are  we  to  find,  what  some  see  there,  the  oriental 
conception  of  virginity  as  per  se  good.^  It  is  the  result  of  dual- 
ism thought  out  to  its  last  analysis,  and  could  only  arise  where 
high  intelligence  united  a  despair  of  life  with  the  religious 
motive  of  rescue  from  its  turmoil. 

Amidst  the  natural  passions  let  loose  by  wealth  and  slavery  in 
the  Roman-Greek  world  virginity  became  a  dramatic  and 
effective  assertion  of  conquest  over  the  world  and  self.  All  the 
Christian  apologists  dwell  on  the  contrast  between  the  purity  of 
monastic  life  and  the  lusts  of  the  heathen  world.^  Monastic 
virginity  was,  of  course,  directly  contradictory  to  the  social- 
ethical  ideal  built  upon  the  notion  of  the  family,  and  rejoicing  in 
fatherhood  and  motherhood.  Yet  it  gave  at  once  a  fighting 
weapon  into  the  hands  of  the  propagandist  organization  with  its 
dream  of  world-conquest.  Nor  was  Athanasius  slow  to  see  this, 
and  he  first  binds  the  monks  to  the  church.^  His  residence 
amongst  them,  his  relations  to  Pachomius,^  his  care  for  their 
orthodoxy,  and  his  life  of  St.  Antony  (if  genuine)  compel  us  to 
regard  Athanasius  as  the  first  of  the  ecclesiastical  leaders  to  see 
the  importance  of  subordinating  the  monastic  development  to 
the  imperial  church.  He  realized  what  it  meant  to  have  a 
body  of  men  cut  off  from  the  ordinary  joys  and  duties  of  the 
home  life,  and  finding  in  the  life  of  an  organization  the  field  of 
their  hopes  and  ambitions.  Thus  the  strange  contradiction  was 
seen,  of  men,  whose  fundamental  postulate  was  the  negation  of 
life,  becoming  the  foremost  fighters  for  an  organization  whose 
affirmations  demanded  the  whole  of  life  here  and  in  eternity. 

'  C/.,  for  contrary  view,  Zicgler:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik,"  p.  192, 
who,  however,  admits  that  the  opportunist  reasons  for  celibacy  were  foremost. 
For  fuller  discussion  of  Asceticism, sec  author's  article  in  Hastings's  "Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,"  vol.  I. 

'  Athanasius,  "Dc  Incarnatione  Verbi  Dei."  cap.  48  :  1-4,  and  many  passages. 

'  Epistola,  III,  ad  monarhos. 

*Cf.  Griitzmacher,  G.:  "Pachomius  und  das  alteste  Klostcrlcbcn."  Freiburg, 
1896. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    199 

Such  a  body  of  men  could  only  come  into  existence  under  the 
influence  of  the  oriental  religious  estimate  of  virginity  as  a  good 
in  itself.  So  more  and  more  this  conception  in  theory  triumphed 
over  the  Jewish  and  natural  valuation  of  the  family.  Never  was 
the  contradiction  really  faced.  The  motherhood  impulse  found 
in  the  worship  of  the  Madonna,  and  the  family  impulse  in  the 
very  name  "father"  as  a  religious  title,  abundant  recognition. 
The  extension  of  celibacy  to  the  clergy  ^  made  the  monastery 
really  unnecessary,  but  this  extension  was  a  necessary  step  the 
moment  virginity  was  considered  as  a  good  per  se.  Yet  the 
monastery  persisted  and  gave  rise  to  its  own  type  of  ethical  ideal, 
and  has  always  been  the  main  support  of  the  baleful  twofold 
morality  which  has  so  seriously  hampered  the  progress  of  Roman 
Catholic  ethics. 

Many  factors  made  the  evolution  a  natural  one.  The  looking 
for  an  early  coming  of  Jesus  seems  to  make  the  founding  of  a 
home  a  useless  care.  The  duty  of  sounding  the  alarm,  going 
everywhere  to  do  so,  made  "the  leading  about  a  wife"  a  heavy 
burden.  Jesus  was  himself  so  soon  cut  off  that  he  never  seems 
to  have  married.  Very  early  Alexandrian  influences  and  the 
intrusion  of  Gnostic  philosophy  converted  the  early  essentially 
Jewish  atmosphere  into  one  more  nearly  in  sympathy  with  the 
oriental -Hellenistic  world  of  thought.  In  this  atmosphere 
world-flight  and  the  negation  of  the  world  as  being  itself  essen- 
tially evil  were  natural  conceptions.  Then  came  persecution. 
The  world  did  seem  to  grow  worse  and  worse,  and  flight  from 
it  was  a  natural  relief.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  influ- 
ences of  the  Serapis  cult^  or  of  the  celibate  band  connected 

'  The  attempt  to  force  celibacy  upon  all  the  clergy  from  deacon  on  was  made 
at  the  council  of  Elvira,  306,  but  a  canon  to  that  effect  is  said  to  have  been 
rejected  by  the  council  at  Nicaea,  on  the  plea  of  Paphnutius,  himself  a  celibate 
monk  (c/.  Hefele:  "Hist,  Councils,"  vol.  I,  p.  435^.)-  I"  the  East  bishops 
were  soon  by  custom  compelled  to  live  in  celibacy,  but  the  struggle  lasted  in 
the  West  down  to  the  time  of  Gregory  VII  (1073).  Here,  as  in  some  other 
directions,  Africa,  with  Augustine  as  its  representative,  played  a  baleful  part. 

^  Cf.  Weingarten,  Herm.:  "Der  Ursprung  des  Monchthums  im  nachconstan- 
tinischen  Zeitalter,"  Gotha,  1877;  also  in  "Zeitsch.  fur  Kirchengesch,"  vol.  I. 


200  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

with  Mithra-worship/  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  these 
monastic  and  dramatic  exhibitions  of  flight  from  the  world 
appealed  to  the  popular  imagination.  Indeed,  they  still  appeal 
to  certain  orders  of  minds.  Thus  Christianity  was  almost  com- 
pelled to  compete  in  austerity  and  to  exhibit,  in  her  struggle  for 
world-dominion,  an  asceticism  more  pronounced  than  even  her 
rivals.  Essenism  had,  so  far  as  one  can  see,  nothing  to  do  with 
Christianity.^  It  was  in  its  very  essence  the  contradiction  of  the 
free  spirit  of  Jesus  and  the  early  church.  But  it  is  an  exceed- 
ingly interesting  evidence  of  how  the  popular  view  of  "holiness" 
was  forced  even  upon  Judaism  by  the  oriental  time-spirit. 
Moreover,  it  is  also  true  that  if  oriental  asceticism  modified  the 
social-ethical  ideal  of  the  kingdom  proclamation,  we  shall  also 
see  in  the  course  of  our  history  how  the  social-ethical  ideal  also 
in  turn  modified  the  eremitic,  world-flight  conception  and  made 
the  monks  the  bearers  of  a  specific  and  most  salutary  message 
of  culture.  Both  in  Athanasius  and  Augustine  as  well  as  even 
in  Tertullian,  we  see  early  Catholic  Christianity  reacting  against 
the  merely  fakir  type  of  celibate  holiness. 

The  monastery  was  a  distinct  advance  upon  the  hermit  life. 
It  at  least  compelled  men  to  submit  to  a  rule,  and  although  there 
were,  no  doubt,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  rules  of  Pachomius,  in- 
difi"erent  spirits  to  be  forced  to  a  higher  plane,  the  same  was  also 
true  of  the  hermits,  of  whom  many  lived  very  far  from  the  highest 
ideal  pictured  in  the  life  of  St.  Anthony.  The  idea  of  acquiring 
a  special  virtue  had  by  this  time  gone  very  far.  The  " martyrs" 
occupied  a  special  place  and  gave  letters  of  indulgence  to  less 
fearless  brethren.  As  martyrdom  ceased,  virtue  could  be  ac- 
quired by  celibacy  and  heroic  feats  of  fasting  and  self-torture. 
The  whole  doctrine  of  "Meritum,"^  however,  supposes  an 
entirely  difl"crent  conception  of  God  from  that  given  us  in  the 
life  and  purpose  of  Jesus. 

'  Cf.  note  on  page  26.  ^  Contra   Zicglcr. 

'  C/.  Harnack,  A.:  "Dogmengcschichte,"  vol.  II,  2d  cd.,  1894,  pp.  157- 
201,  for  discussion  of  the  doctrine  of  grace  and  sin;  English  translation,  V 
(1899),  pp.  161-221. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    201 

These  two  ideals  of  ethical  relationship  to  God  persist  side 
by  side  in  all  the  great  teachers  of  this  period,  and  the  funda- 
mental contradiction  between  the  two  has  not  even  to-day  been 
clearly  recognized  in  Protestant  dogmatic  theology/     On  the 
one  hand  the  ethical  relationship  is  based  on  the  free  love  of  a 
father  to  the  sinning  child  (prodigal  son),  who  blesses  even 
the  wicked  and  rebellious   (rain  on  just  and  unjust).     Sal- 
vation is  absolutely  the  free  gift  to  any  one  coming  in  sorrow  to 
the  Father,  whose  love  is  over  all  and  for  all.     The  joy  of  the 
forgiven  life  is  its  own  reward,  and  into  this  joy  the  Father  calls 
all  who  will  come.     The  ethical  relationship  of  the  ascetic  to 
God  is  based  on  the  other  hand  on  the  fundamental  thought  of 
God  as  one  who  is  angry  and  must  be  appeased.     This  con- 
ception is  found  in  both  paganism  and  Judaism.    So  the  ascetic 
thinks  God  is  pleased  by  fasting  and  long  prayers,  whereas 
Jesus  and  his  disciples  did  not  fast,  and  he  forbade  wordy 
petitions.     Between  the  worshipper  and  God  the  ascetic  soon 
thrust  the  Mater  Dolorosa  in  the  very  color  and  form  of  the 
Mater  Magna  of  heathen  mystery- worship;  and  the  suffering 
Son  in  imagery  borrowed,  one  is  tempted  to  believe,  at  times 
much  more  from  Horus  the  child-god  and  Mithra  the  fighting 
incarnation  of  justice  than  from  the  synoptic  Gospels.    Over 
against  this  God  there  can  be  "merit"  heaped  up  as  a  claim. 
The  relationship  becomes  legal  rather  than  parental;  the  ethics 
are  based   upon   exchange  and  calculation  and  not  on  the 
freedom  of  love. 

Moreover,  the  sacramental  organization  begins  increasingly 
to  obtrude  itself  between  the  worshipper  and  this  God.  Optatus, 
Bishop  of  Mileve,  struck  a  fearful  blow  at  the  independence  of 
the  ethical  life  when  in  opposition  to  the  Donatists  the  phrase 
was  formulated,  "  Ecclesia  una  est  cuius  sanctitas  de  sacramentis 
colligitur,  non  de  superbia  personarum  ponderatur."  ^   More- 

.  >  Cf.  Shedd's  "Systematic  Theology"  on  Atonement,  for  instance. 
^De  schismate  Donatistarum,"  liber  II,  §  i.    MPL,  XI,  p.  941.    Cf.  Miiller 
Karl:    "Kirchengeschichte,"   Band    I,  p.  249;    Moller,    Wilh.:    "Kirchenges- 
chichte,"  I,  2d  ed.,  1902,  pp.  531,  532. 


202  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

over,  the  fantastic,  hysterical  moods  bred  of  the  desert  and 
the  unnatural  life  of  the  monastery  made  the  transference  of 
many  superstitions  to  even  the  educated  circles  of  the  Christian 
church  possible,  where  even  paganism  on  the  same  intellectual 
level  had  cast  them  off. 

The  emphasis  was  changed.  Jesus  came  to  save  the  world, 
and  sent  his  disciples  to  proclaim  the  kingdom  of  God;  the 
monkish  ideal  was  the  salvation  of  the  person's  own  soul,  and,  as 
always  happens,  just  as  far  as  monasticism  sought  to  save  its 
own  soul  it  lost  it.  Strangely  enough,  these  two  ideals  could 
exist  side  by  side  in  considerable  measure,  and  in  spite  of  the 
triumph  of  monasticism,  its  ethical  ideal  never  could  quite  dis- 
place the  social-ethical  estimate  of  life.  Hence  the  monastic 
development  became  detached  from  its  Oriental  and  essentially 
dualistic  philosophy  of  life,  and,  transplanted  to  the  West  in 
connection  with  a  triumphant  sacramental  imperialism,  it  took 
up  its  cultural  and  ethical  task  of  teaching  and  training  Ger- 
manic Europe. 

In  the  doing  of  this  work  it  gained  and  deserved  a  large  place 
in  human  history,  and  much  of  its  honorable  history  is  too  often 
buried  amidst  polemics  or  lost  sight  of  amidst  the  corruptions 
to  which  it  inevitably  fell  a  prey.  The  beginning  of  this  sub- 
jection of  the  monastic  ideal  to  the  Roman  Catholic  sacramental 
system  is  seen  in  the  work  of  Athanasius.  How  old  the  de- 
velopment itself  was  is  in  dispute.  It  is  certainly  older  than 
Weingarten  would  have  us  believe.  Its  form  is,  however, 
thoroughly  pagan,  and  how  it  gradually  passed  from  its  pagan 
form  to  superficial  Christianity  in  Egypt  and  Palestine  it  is 
now  impossible  from  the  data  at  hand  to  say  with  any  assurance. 

II.      THE    MESSAGE    OF    THE   GREAT    PREACHERS 

The  questions  relating  to  the  transformation  of  dogma  and 
creed  have  occupied,  naturally,  the  attention  of  the  systematic 
theologian,  but  it  is  often  forgotten  how  small  must  ever  be 
the  number  to  whom  such  questions  are    really    vital.     The 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    203 

details  of  such  discussions  have  only  meaning  for  the  mass 
of  even  thoughtful  men  as  they  are  led  by  trusted  teachers  to 
connect  them  with  their  own  vital  religious  and  ethical  ex- 
periences. Into  the  metaphysics  of  the  question  that  in- 
volved the  formulation  of  the  relation  of  the  essence  of  the 
second  person  of  the  Godhead  to  the  first  person,  not  one  in 
ten  thousand  of  the  nominal  Christian  community  was  fitted  to 
go.  But  the  clear  expression  and  the  great  religious  earnestness 
of  Athanasius,  together  with,  no  doubt,  the  real  linking  of  the 
final  formulation  with  the  Christian  experience  of  many,  gave 
the  new  creed  of  Nicasa  a  tremendous  and  increasing  hold  upon 
the  religious  .imagination  of  the  church. 

As  over  against  the  divided  ranks  of  Arianism,  with  its  political 
interest,  its  rationalistic  basis  and  intellectualistic  caste,  as  well  as 
its  reversions  to  older  but  exceedingly  varied  forms  of  heathen 
thought,^  the  orthodoxy  of  Nictea  offered  at  least  a  seemingly 
united  front. 

The  great  ecclesiastical  machine,  built  upon  the  devotion  of 
martyrs,  the  spiritual  visions  of  a  thousand  saints,  the  labors 
and  toils  and  tears  of  uncounted  and  obscure  followers  of  the 
cross,  at  last  triumphed;  and  the  shrewd  Constantine  and  the 
emperors  that  followed  him,  with  the  single  exception  of  the 
high-minded  but  misguided  Julian,  were  compelled  to  seek  in  the 
sacramental  hierarchy  the  only  possible  basis  for  a  religious 
unity  of  the  empire.  It  is  hard  to  see  in  Constantine  any  large 
Christian  inspiration.^  But  he  was  shrewd  and  perhaps  super- 
stitious, and  as  he  gradually  saw  the  usefulness  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical organization  and  gave  it  freedom,  the  joy  of  the  church 
covered  a  multitude  of  sins.  The  whole  position  was  changed. 
Heathenism  was  now  only  tolerated,  at  times  was  even  exposed 
to  harsh  treatment;  and  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  became 
increasingly  powerful. 

'C/.  Gwatkin,  H.  M.:  "Studies  in  Arianism,"  1882,  pp.  52-64,  and  Newman, 
J.  H.:  "The  Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century,"  London,  1854. 

='C/.  Burckhardt,  J.:  "Die  Zeit  Constantins  des  Grossen,"  1880,  pp.  347- 
397- 


204  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

To  understand  the  strength  of  the  church  as  an  ethical  factor 
we  must  turn  away  from  the  dogmatic  disputes,  whose  bitter- 
ness was  increased  by  the  fact  that  to  ever  greater  extent  victory 
meant  the  dominion  of  the  world.  By  the  leaders  the  meta- 
physical questions  were,  no  doubt,  sincerely  regarded  as  the 
key  to  the  situation.  As  we  study,  however,  the  message  of  the 
great  preachers  of  the  immediate  postnicene  period,  we  must 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  force  and  greatness  of  the  Catholic 
organization  lay  not  in  its  intellectual,  but  in  its  ethical  and  re- 
ligious life. 

The  history  of  Nicene  orthodoxy  is  morally  sickening  to  the 
last  degree.  Bribery,  persecution,  repression,  backstairs  influ- 
ence, and  poison  play  their  baleful  roles.  But,  apart  from  eccles- 
iastical orthodoxy,  within  and  without  it  existed  a  great  religious 
movement.*  When  we  compare  Ambrose  or  Augustine,  Basil 
or  Chrysostom,  as  writers  and  thinkers  with  their  classic  models 
the  difference  is  marked.  But  the  leaders  of  the  church  had 
what  neither  Cicero  nor  Marcus  Aurelius  possessed — they  had 
actually  seen  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ  as  forgiving  and 
redeeming  love.  Much  remained  unchanged  in  their  views  of 
life  and  the  world.  Heathenism  reasserted  itself  in  saintly 
mythology  and  magic  sacramentarianism;  human  nature  im- 
perfectly sanctified,  even  by  that  vision,  gave  room  for  pride  and 
hate  and  fear  and  bigotry;  but  for  all  that,  no  veil  could  quite 
hide  the  shining  of  the  faces  of  those  who  had  seen  God  in  pity 
and  compassion,  and  these  men  became  the  messengers  of  re- 
deeming grace. 

In  no  man  is  seen  more  clearly  the  mingling  of  these  two 
elements,  the  gracious  messenger  of  redeeming  forgiveness  and 
the  superstitious  and  sometimes  hard  and  proud  ecclesiastic, 
than  in  the  great  organizer  Ambrose   oj  Milan?     One  of  his 

'  Cf.  Burckhardt:  "Die  Zeit  Constantins,"  1880,  p.  378. 

*  Ambrose,  born  probably  at  Treves,  of  noble  family,  in  340.  His  sister,  like 
himself,  was  religious  from  early  youth  and  became  a  nun.  He  was  made 
bishop  eight  days  after  his  baptism,  and  that  by  acclamation,  in  374.  He  died 
after  a  most  successful  bishopric  in  Milan  in  387.  For  our  purposes  the  chief 
works  are  "De  Fide,"  in  five  books;  "De  Spiritu  Sanclo,"  in  three  books;  "De 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    205 

main  works,  "De  Officiis  Ministrorum,"  is  an  ethical  treatise, 
in  form  far  below  the  model,  from  which  he  borrowed  wholesale, 
by  Cicero.  The  intellectual  and  literary  worth  of  the  two  books 
make  a  comparison  impossible.  But  when  the  spirit  of  the  two 
is  considered,  at  once  it  is  manifest  why  Cicero  speaks  even  to- 
day to  the  few  who  need  him  least,  and  Ambrose  became  the 
teacher  of  the  unshepherded  multitude. 

Even  along  the  line  where  the  ethical  message  most  parts 
asunder  from  the  teaching  of  the  Jewish  Christ,  as  in  the  matter 
of  virginity,  Ambrose  makes  his  appeal  tell  for  a  higher  sexual 
relationship,  and  demands  of  the  man  the  same  purity  he  de- 
mands of  the  woman. ^  The  corruption  along  sexual  lines  of 
a  slave-ridden  community  made  the  appeal  of  virginity  a  very 
strong  one,  and  Ambrose  is  insistent  on  the  honorable  character, 
indeed,  of  marriage,  but  the  superlative  virtue  of  continence.^ 
In  the  conception  of  the  incarnation  according  to  Ambrose  lay 
a  joining  of  the  life  of  heaven  with  the  bodies  of  men  in  a 
certain  mechanical  way  that  suggests  the  oriental  dualistic 
conception.^  But  in  truth  the  message  of  Ambrose  was  not 
primarily  a  speculative  system,  however  firmly  he  held  as  all 
important  the  conventional  orthodoxy  of  his  day.  His  whole 
life  and  teaching  was  a  religious  and  ethical  appeal. 

Had  Ambrose  had  his  chief  importance  as  even  a  theoretical 
ethical  instructor,  we  might  almost  lament  his  transplanting 

Mysteriis"  (generally  accepted  as  genuine);  "De  PcEnitentia,"  in  two  books; 
"De  Ofl&ciis  Ministrorum,"  in  three  books;  "De  Viduis"  and  "De  Virginitate," 
as  well  as  "De  Institutione  Virginis."  Among  his  chief  addresses  may  be 
mentioned  the  "Exhortatio  Virginitatis,"  "De  Excessu  fratris  Satyri,"  and  "De 
Obitu  Theodosii  Oratio."  His  letters  also  abound  in  material  of  use  to  the 
student  of  his  time.  All  the  older  editions  of  his  works,  from  that  of  Venice,  in 
1485,  to  the  Roman  edition,  1580-1585,  have  been  superseded  by  the  Benedictine 
edition,  Paris,  1686-1690,  which  is  reprinted  with  additions  by  Migne,  in  "Patro- 
logia  Latina,"  vols.  XIV-XVII.  A  new  edition  at  Milan,  1875-1886,  is  said 
not  to  be  an  improvement.  Select  works  and  letters  are  translated  in  Schaff  and 
Wace:  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  second  series,  1896,  vol.  X. 

*  "De  Officiis  Min.,  book  I,  17  :  65,  and  other  passages. 

^  "Honorabile  itaque  conjugium,  sed  honorabilior  integritas."  "  De  Viduis," 
12:72,  quoting  I  Cor.  7  :  38.     (MPL,  XVI,  256  B.) 

^  "  De  Virginibus,"  I,  3  :  13. 


2o6  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Cicero  and  the  Stoics,  but  this  was  not  the  case.  The  services 
of  the  pulpit  as  we  see  them  rendered  by  Ambrose,  Chrysostom, 
and  Augustine,  were  of  high  intellectual  value;  they  brought  to 
the  masses  the  intellectual  life  of  Greece,  even  though  decadent 
Greece,  an  intellectual  life  that  had  still  further  been  lowered  by 
contact  with  the  practical  issues  at  Rome.  Nevertheless  the 
prime  value  of  the  Christian  pulpit  was  not  on  this  side.  Con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  the  whole  intellectual  superstructure 
of  the  pulpit  message  of  the  postnicene  period  has  gone  from 
us  or  is  going.  There  remains,  however,  the  priceless  ethical 
and  religious  services  the  Christian  pulpit  rendered. 

Nowhere  is  this  perhaps  more  beautifully  brought  out  than 
by  a  comparison,  for  instance,  of  the  sermons  by  Ambrose  on 
the  death  of  his  beloved  brother  Satyrus  ^  with  even  the  choicest 
comfort  of  the  Stoics.  "Death  is  not  a  penalty,"  for  the  Lord 
did  not  "inflict  death  as  a  penalty,  but  as  a  remedy,"  ^  hence 
death  is  fundamentally  not  an  evil,  but  a  good;  ^  it  is,  however, 
not  simply  an  escape  from  the  thorns  and  briers  that  beset  men's 
ways,  but  is  God's  way  of  purifying  unto  holiness.*  It  was  not 
as  prophet,  but  as  priest  that  the  church  felt  most  her  responsi- 
bility. Protestantism  may  justly  complain  of  the  haughty 
claims  of  exclusive  priestly  function  made  by  the  Catholic 
imperialism.  Yet  it  is  the  priestly  service  she  rendered  that 
forms  still  her  highest  claim  to  our  gratitude.  She  did  mediate 
the  God  and  Father  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  in  a  dialectic  phraseology, 
indeed,  that  is  losing  meaning  for  us,  but  yet  effectively  to  the 
world  passing  from  one  economic  order  with  painful  birth-pangs 
to  a  wholly  different  social  arrangement. 

It  was  this  superb  sense  of  being  the  proclaimer  of  forgiven  sin 
that  gave  this  imperialism  conscious  power.  As  over  against 
the  Novatians  Ambrose  asserts  in  unequivocal  terms  the  power 
of  the  church  to  forgive  sin,®  although  she  would  only  do  so 
on  conditions  of  her  own  defining;*    and  she  more  and  more 

'  "De  Excessu  fratris  Satyri"  and  "De  Fide  Rcsurreclionis." 

'  "De  Excessu.,"  II,  37.  '  "De  Excessu,"  11,39- 

*  "De  Excessu,"  II,  41.  '  "De  Poenitentia,"  1,  2  :  6. 

•  "De  PcEnitentia,"  I,  3  :  10. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    207 

makes  this  power  of  her  proclamation  a  selfish  instrument  of 
her  might.  It  is  a  mark  of  the  imperial  character  of  her  claims 
that  Ambrose  makes  schism  the  only  unforgivable  sin/  and  that 
the  dealing  of  the  church  with  the  "Lapsi,"  or  those  who  in 
persecution  had  fallen  away,  was  always  controlled  by  the  inter- 
ests of  her  spreading  power  on  the  one  hand  and  the  cohesion 
of  the  organization  on  the  other. 

But  the  organization  as  Ambrose  loved  and  served  it  was  for 
the  redeeming  of  men  from  sin;  it  was  God's  instrument  for 
calling  wandering  sinners  back  to  grace  and  holiness.  Her 
works  were  to  be  those  of  love  and  mercy,  and  her  strength  was 
her  indwelling  with  God.  It  was  not  so  much  what  these  great 
teachers  taught  in  set  dogma  and  formal  creed,  but  what  they 
were  as  men  and  leaders  in  the  new  life  that  gave  them  power  and 
permanence. 

What  that  power  was  is  seen  in  the  life-history  of  these  great 
preaching  bishops.  One  is  strongly  reminded  of  Savonarola  as 
one  reads  the  story  of  the  life  and  final  defeat  of  the  eloquent 
John,  called  Chrysostom?    The  ethical  theory  is  of  less  interest 

*  "De  Poenitentia,"  II,  4  :  24. 

*  John,  called  Chrysostom  {'luivvt]^  6  xpvffoffrSixoi),  was  born  about  344,  in 
Antioch  (on  the  Orontes),  and  was  of  noble  birth.  He  was  ordained  reader  by 
Bishop  Meletius  in  369.  When  first  sought  for  as  a  bishop,  in  374,  he  evaded  it  by 
hiding,  and  embraced  the  monastic  life  in  the  following  year.  In  380  or  381  he  was 
ordained  deacon,  and  about  five  years  later  was  made  presbyter.  On  the  death 
of  Nectarius  he  was  elected  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  in  398,  and  began  a  work 
of  ecclesiastical  and  political  reform  which  made  him  very  unpopular  in  high 
quarters,  but  secured  him  the  support  of  the  masses.  In  403  he  was  banished 
by  Theophilus,  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  but  had  to  be  recalled,  such  was  the  popular 
uproar.  Finally  Eudoxia  (the  Empress)  expelled  him,  and  he  left  Constanti- 
nople in  404.  In  407  he  was  ordered  to  Comana,  and  on  the  way  he  died.  In 
438  his  body  was  brought  back  in  state  to  Constantinople.  His  works  are  very 
numerous,  and  those  that  interest  us  especially  are  the  Homilies  and  Orations, 
the  treatise  on  Virginity  ("De  Virginitate, "  in  one  book),  and  the  treatise,  "De 
incomprehensibile  Dei  natura,"  in  five  books.  A  history  of  the  texts  is  given  in 
Migne,  "Patrologia  Graeca,"  tom.  47,  cols.  263-276  (see  also  Schaff,  P.,  in 
"Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  series  I,  vol.  IX,  pp.  3-5).  The  text  used 
is  that  of  Migne,  "Patrologia  Greeca,"  vols.  47-64,  though  the  reader  must 
guard  against  printers'  errors.  Translated  in  the  first  series  of  the  "Nicene  and 
Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  edited  by  Schaff  and  Wace,  vols.  IX-XIV. 


2o8  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

to  us  than  the  actual  ethical  activity  of  the  man.  He  was  bent 
upon  securing  a  holy  church.  To  this  end  he  proclaimed  his 
ideal  of  the  ascetic  monastic  priesthood  and  the  sacramental 
power  of  the  ecclesiastical  organization. 

For  the  theologian  his  work  must  be  of  intense  interest  as  one 
notes  how  God  is  thrust  further  and  further  away  by  Greek 
metaphysical  speculation,  and  the  religious  interest  fills  the  gap 
thus  left  by  putting  steadily  in  the  foreground  the  Incarnate 
Logos.'  Yet,  in  spite  of  Greek  spirit  and  oriental  atmosphere, 
the  organization  instinct  was  almost  as  strong  in  Chrysostom  as 
in  Ambrose.  This  is  what  Christianity  accomplished  and  philos- 
ophy failed  to  do.  It  made  men  give  themselves  to  the  new 
communal  ideal.  Even  if  this  was  priestly,  ecclesiastical,  and 
sacramentarian,  the  effect  was  the  evolving  of  a  new  standard  of 
human  conduct. 

In  Chrysostom  we  see  the  new  and  relatively  democratic  or- 
ganization force  its  way  against  the  military  tyranny  which  was 
the  essence  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  And  in  the  treatise,  "  De 
Virginitate,"  we  see  how  the  needs  of  the  organization  compel 
even  so  stout  an  ascetic  as  Chrysostom  to  adapt  his  morality  at 
this  point  to  social  needs.  Hatred  of  marriage  as  proclaimed  by 
Marcion,  Valentinus,  and  Manes,  Chrysostom  says,  is  of  the 
devil,^  and  he  boldly  says  that  he  who  condemns  marriage  takes 
away  the  glory  of  virginity;^  and  even  though  the  defence  of 
marriage  is  often  put  on  the  low  grounds  given  in  the  English 
"Book  of  Common  Prayer,"  *  the  social  meaning  is  not  wholly 
lost  sight  of. 

As  over  against  a  vulgar  fatalism  that  excused  on  the  ground 
of  human  nature  every  surrender  to  personal  sin,  Chrysostom 
lays  emphasis  upon  ethical  freedom  and  the  nobility  of  man. 
Upon  the  sinner  is  put  the  burden  of  his  sin.^ 

'  C/.  "De  Christ!  precibus,  contra  Anomoeos,"  IX. 

^^''De  Virginitate,"  III. 

^  "De  Virginitate,"  XXV,  Ka\6v  6  yd/ios  8ti  iv  <Tw0po(Ti5iT7  rhv  &vSpa  Sian/ipei, 
Kal  ovK  i<pl7](Tiv  eli  iropvflav  KaraKvXioOivTa  dwoOaveiv.  (MPG,  XL\'III,  550, 
KE.')  *  Marriage  service. 

*  "De  diabola  tentatorc,"  Horn.  Ill,  2,  and  many  passages.  English  transla- 
tion in  "  Nicene  and  Post-Nicenc  Library,"  vol.  IX,  p.  192,  American  edition,  1903. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    209 

He  taught  the  exercise  of  loving  humanity  in  the  treatment 
of  slaves,  and,  according  to  Burckhardt,  demanded  the  entire 
abolishment  of  slavery.'  He  faced  a  corrupted  priesthood  with 
the  stern  excision  of  thirteen  bishops,  and  by  holding  up  an 
ideal  of  personal  purity  and  consecration  forced  the  secular 
power  to  terms. 

The  great  preachers  of  the  new  Catholic  church  organized 
the  pulpits  of  the  churches  into  a  tremendous  power  with  which 
the  rulers  of  the  world  have  had  to  reckon  ever  since.  Even 
in  Chrysostom  one  sees  how  the  credal  and  ethical-legal  devel- 
opment began  to  balance  the  tendency  of  fierce  differences  in 
opinion,  and  how  the  tradition  of  the  organization  hardened  into 
creed  and  canon  as  a  formal  bond  for  ecclesiastical  and  political 
union. 

Such  a  formal  bond  the  political  power  also  sought,  but  nothing 
save  a  new  ethical  and  religious  enthusiasm  could  make  it  a 
reality.  And  such  enthusiasm  and  religious  zeal  as  an  Ambrose 
or  a  Chrysostom  were  possessed  by  could  not  be  tamely  yoked  to 
the  half-disrupted  political  machinery  of  the  old  era.  In  the  life 
of  Basil  ^  we  see  the  far-reaching  vision  of  a  world-wide  ecclesias- 
tical dominion  as  it  took  hold  of  these  new  leaders  of  the  world's 
way.^  Like  Ambrose,  Chrysostom,  and  the  others,  Basil  pro- 
claimed the  ascetic-ethical  type.  He  was  himself  the  founder 
of  orders,  and  had  travelled  in  Egypt,"  Palestine,  Syria,  and 
Mesopotamia,  seeking  those  who  had  left  all  to  follow  Christ.'' 

'  "Die  Zeit  Constantins  des  Grossen,"  2d  ed.,  1880,  p.  379. 

2  Basil  was  born  in  329  or  330,  in  Pontus  (Neocaesarea),  or  in  Caesarea  in  Cappa- 
docia.  Two  of  his  brothers  were  also  bishops,  i.  e.,  of  Nyssa  and  Sebasteia. 
In  370  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Csesarea,  and  died  in  378  or  379  (probably 
January  ist  of  the  later  date).  Of  his  numerous  works,  those  that  concern  us 
chiefly  are  "In  Hexsmeron"  (Els  t^v  "E^a-f)ixepov),  a  pious  discussion  of 
creation;  Tractatus  Prsevii,"  "Prooemium  de  Judicio  Dei,"  "Moralia"  (ra 
"B.6lk6.),  the  "HomiHes"  and  "Letters."  The  numerous  texts  given  in  Migne, 
"Patrologia  Greeca,"  vols.  XXIX-XXXII.  Translation  of  selected  writings, 
VIII  of  "The  Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  second  series,  edited  by  Scha£f 
and  Wace,  vol.  VIII. 

^  Cf.  Epistola,  70,  arfd  the  grounds  for  a  demand  for  church  unity  in  Epistola, 

65- 

*Epp.  I  and  223.  'Epistola  223,  §  2. 


2IO  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

His  mind  is  clear  and  sharp-cut,  and  although  impulsive, 
domineering,  and  perhaps  arrogant,  his  ethics  are  lofty  and  his 
purpose  very  high.  For  him  God  was  the  source  of  all  good. 
"  Equally  blasphemous  is  it  to  assert  that  evil  has  its  origin  in 
God;  for  from  the  opposite  cannot  spring  the  opposite.  If, 
then,  evil  is  neither  God-created  nor  uncreated,  whence  comes 
its  being  ?  No  one  who  lives  in  the  world  will  say  that  evil  does 
not  have  a  being.  What,  then,  shall  we  say  ?  Evil  is  not  a  living, 
breathing  being,  but  a  condition  of  the  spirit  which  is  opposite 
to  good,  and  arises  in  the  unthinking  because  they  decline  from 
God."  ^  We  are  therefore  not  to  go  beyond  ourselves  to  seek 
for  the  origin  of  evil  or  to  imagine  that  there  is  a  primal  essence 
of  evil.^ 

Basil,  moreover,  distinguishes  between  such  misfortunes  as 
"sickness,  poverty,  obscurity,  death,  in  brief,  all  human  ills, 
which  should  not  be  estimated  as  evils,  since  we  do  not  estimate 
as  being  their  opposites  things  that  are  the  greatest  boons.'' 
But  on  this  problem  of  problems  that  led  astray  so  much  of  the 
best  strength  and  thought  of  the  oriental  and  Hellenistic  worlds, 
Basil  does  not  dwell.  He  has  found  his  message,  and  in  the 
authority  of  the  sacramental  organization  and  in  the  security 
of  traditional  orthodoxy  he,  like  thousands  of  others,  took 
refuge  and  gives  his  strength  to  the  cultivation  of  the  church 
which  is  to  him  the  symbol  of  the  divine  sovereignty  on  earth. 

The  beauty  and  lofty  character  of  Basil's  ethical  message 
may  be  seen  in  Epistola  XXII,  which  is  a  little  ethical  treatise 
drawn  up  for  a  "brotherhood"  or  "ccenobium,"  although  the 
sterner  side  appears  in  the  injunction  not  to  laugh  or  suffer 
jesters.  The  great  social  power  of  the  organization  is  shown  in 
the  mere  demand:  "No  Christian  should  consider  himself  his 
own  master,  but  each  should  think  himself  as  a  slave  given  by 
God  to  the  brethren  who  think  with  him,"  quoting  as  proof 
I  Cor.  15  :  23.     The  conception  of  the  Christian  as  servant  of 

*  " Hexsemeroh,"  Horn.  II,  4. 

'  "Hexzemcron,"  Horn.  II,  5  (rtva  (pvaiv)  (MPG,  29  :  40  A.) 

•  "Hexaemeron,"  Horn.  II,  5. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    211 

all  underlay  even  the  haughty  claims  of  the  growing  hierarchy, 
and  Basil  is  haunted  by  the  vision  of  a  community  actually  given 
up  to  the  pursuit  of  holiness  in  loving  service. 

In  the  letter  to  Chilo/  upon  which  unnecessary  doubt  has 
been  cast,  he  gives  a  picture  of  life  as  men  of  earnest  mind  sa\V 
it  then.  No  judgment  could  be  more  sweeping.  "The  world's 
good  things  are  mingled  with  evil  things,  and  the  evil  things 
have  decidedly  the  advantage."  He  sought  everywhere  relief. 
"  I  heard  many  discourses  which  were  wholesome  for  the  spirit, 
but  I  failed  to  discover  in  any  teacher  one  whose  life  corresponded 
to  his  teaching.  Then  I  heard  the  tuneful  lyre,  the  applause 
given  to  actors,  the  jokes  of  clowns,  the  jests,  the  follies,  the 
murmur  of  the  rabble.  I  saw  the  tears  of  the  robbed,  the  agony 
of  men  under  tyranny,  the  cries  of  the  tortured  did  I  hear.  1 
looked,  but  no  holy  communion,  but  only  a  wind-tossed,'tumbling 
sea,  seeking  but  to  submerge  all  in  its  waves."  Despair  fills 
his  soul.  Good  works  are  on  this  sea  as  a  drop  of  fresh  water  in 
the  ocean.  World-flight  is  the  remedy,  and  to  save  one's  own 
soul  the  suggested  way  out.  "  For  this  reason  I  fly  to  the  hills 
as  a  bird."  Yet  from  this  despair  the  growing  hierarchy  saved 
men.     In  the  church's  power  was  promise  for  a  better  future. 

Just  as  to-day  many  an  earnest  soul  overlooks  the  materialism, 
the  crudeness,  the  bickerings  and  divisions  of  political  Social 
Democracy,  and  sees  in  it  the  hope  of  a  coming  state  of  brother- 
hood and  love,  so  souls  like  that  of  Basil  and  Gregory  of  Nazian- 
zus  turned  to  the  church,  and  forgave  its  divisions  and  its  nar- 
rowness because  they  saw  in  its  hope,  at  least,  the  ideal  of  that 
life  after  which  they  longed,  and  they  shared  with  it  the  delusion 
that  this  ideal  community  could  only  be  built  up  on  the  basis  of 
orthodoxy  and  sacramentarian  correctness. 

Hence  the  message  of  forgiveness  in  its  ethical  relations  occu- 
pies much  of  the  attention  of  these  preachers  of  the  new  right- 
eousness. How  could  men  be  saved  from  the  awful  yoke  and 
curse  of  the  law  without  falling  into  license  and  sin  ?  And  how 
could  the  church  proclaim  the  sinner  forgiven?    These  were 

'  Letter  42. 


212  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

burning  questions  of  far-reaching  ethical  importance.  Paul 
met  them  early  in  Corinth,  but  as  the  church  became  more  com- 
pletely a  substitute  for  the  secular  power  the  difficulty  greatly 
increased.  Stern  puritans  like  the  Donatists,  the  Montanists, 
and  the  Novatians,  would  have  wrecked  the  political  organization 
by  limiting  its  power  to  forgive  sin. 

The  dynamic  of  baptismal  grace  was  exhausted  by  the  past, 
and  the  sinner  was  denied  approach  to  the  source  of  sacramental 
grace  in  the  eucharist.  The  great  leaders  began  ever  more 
frequently  to  surrender  this  ideal  of  a  holy  church,  and  to  com- 
fort themselves  with  the  conception  of  a  holy  fellowship  within 
the  church.  Athanasius,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  foremost  thinker 
along  these  lines,  but  Ambrose,  and  especially  Basil,  did  much 
to  promote  the  change.  Even  priests  and  nuns  fell  from 
baptismal  grace,  and  Basil  has  to  face  again  the  serious  question 
of  their  relation  to  the  church.  He  does  so  in  the  wider  spirit 
engendered  by  the  experience  of  the  past,  and  extends  even  to 
these  the  hope  of  forgiveness.*  At  the  same  time  the  condition 
is  repentance  and  penance.  So  now  is  organized  even  more 
completely  the  process  by  which  a  full  recognition  of  the  sinner 
could  be  secured. 

Long  periods  of  time  had  to  intervene,  and  men  were  sum- 
moned by  canonical  law  to  abstain  from  the  sacraments,  standing 
first  at  the  church  door  as  "weepers,"  ^  and  then  entering  as 
"hearers,"^  then  for  another  period  "kneelers"^  before  the 
altar,  at  last  staying  during  the  mystery,  although  the  oblation 
was  withheld,  until  at  last,  after  ten  or  fifteen  years,  complete 
forgiveness  was  assured  and  the  sacraments  could  be  partaken 
of  by  the  sinner.'^  The  shortening  of  these  periods  was  only 
possible  by  acts  of  special  grace.  The  holy  priest  in  benediction 
actually  imparted  holiness,  "for  benediction  is  the  imparting  of 
holiness."  ^  Hence  the  penitent  could  seek  the  intervention  of 
such  as  "by  their  way  of  life  in  the  Evangel  could  be  able  to 
prevail  with  God."  ^ 

'  Epp.  44-46.  ^  irpoK\aluv.  '  dKpOivpLfvos.  *  inroirliTTOiv. 

^  Cf.  Epj).  199  and  217.  "  Epistola  199  :  27.  '  Epislola  284. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    213 

Very  interesting  are  Basil's  letters  on  the  canons  *  and  those 
that  refer  to  the  judicial  decisions  made  in  cases  of  fault.  They 
reveal  to  us  how  completely  the  ecclesiastical  order  was  super- 
seding the  political  as  a  social-ethical  force.  At  the  same  time 
they  open  our  eyes  to  the  externalizing  influence  of  canon  law 
and  to  the  legalism  into  which  the  ethical  freedom  of  Jesus  and 
Paul  had  sunk. 

The  old  maxims  of  Roman  law  reappear  as  with  authority.^ 
"Custom"  is  quoted  as  even  offsetting  the  words  of  the  Lord/ 
Moses  is  reinstated  as  an  authority  in  determining  penance/ 
and  even  the  words  of  Jesus  to  the  poor  Samaritan  woman  are 
exalted  into  a  code-law  against  exceeding  the  limit  of  second 
marriages.^  Grave  concessions  are  made  in  the  case  of  wrong- 
doing between  the  sexes  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  woman.^ 
Men  are  forbidden  to  marry  their  sisters-in-law,  and  even  a 
deceased  wife's  sister  may  not  be  married.^ 

In  the  ethics  of  the  church  the  regulation  of  the  family  always 
played  a  chief  part,  and  to  this  theme  the  preachers  and  bishops 
were  constantly  returning.  Ambrose  was  legally  trained,  and 
Basil  had  imbibed  the  spirit  of  the  law  whose  formulation  went 
hand  in  hand  with  canon  law.^    The  dual  r61e  of  preacher  and 

'  Epp.  188,  199,  217. 

2  Cf.  Epist.  188  :  3.  '  Epist.  i88  :  9.  «  Epist.  188  :  11. 

^  Epist.  188  :  4.  ^  Epistolai99  :  21.  ^  Epistola  199  :  23. 

*  The  decentralization  of  the  Roman  Empire  involved  finding  a  new  bond 
of  union.  As  from  the  time  of  Diocletian  on  it  became  not  Roman  but  an  inter- 
national world  confederation,  the  personal  element  was  prominent,  and  the 
decisions  of  the  emperors,  under  legal  advice,  became  a  body  of  laws  for  the 
world's  guidance,  subject,  however,  to  many  local  peculiarities.  The  formula- 
tion of  this  into  a  code  from  the  time  of  Constantine  on  was  undertaken  by 
Theodosius  (438),  and  the  formulation  was  accepted  by  the  Emperor  of  the 
West,  Valentinian  III.  The  Justinian  code,  or  rather  codes,  together  with  the 
Digest  or  Pandects,  were  drawn  up  in  5 29-533, and  the  "Novels," or  new  decisions 
of  the  emperor,  in  the  years  following,  535-559.  The  church  canons  were 
collected  about  the  middle  of  this  century,  and  to  church  canon  law  Justinian 
gave  legal  character  in  the  decision  of  the  "Novels,"  CXLI.  Basil  died  in  379, 
the  year  in  which  Theodosius  practically  began  to  suppress  heathenism,  and 
which  Harnack  calls  the  year  (380)  of  the  birth  of  a  State  church.  (Harnack,  A. : 
"Kirche  und  Staat  bis  zur  Griindung  der  Staatskirche,"  p.  157,  in  "Die  Kultur 


214  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

law-giver  is  a  marked  feature  of  these  great  bishops.  It  is  the 
weakness  of  their  ethics  that  it  was  legal  and  formal,  and  it 
is  the  weakness  of  their  judicial  work  that  it  was  too  often  under- 
taken in  the  heat  of  passion  and  under  the  strain  of  prejudices 
and  prepossessions.  "The  accidental  homicide  should  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  sacrament  for  ten  years,  the  ten  years  to  be 
passed  as  follows:  For  two  years  he  will  weep,  for  three  years 
continue  among  the  hearers,  for  four  he  should  be  a  kneeler, 
and  for  one  he  should  stand.  Then  he  may  be  admitted  to  the 
holy  ritual,"  '  and  while  accidental  homicide  is  thus  punished, 
"he  who  has  denied  Christ  ought  to  weep  all  his  life  long,"  and 
only  receive  the  sacrament  in  the  hour  of  death.  Intellectual 
digressions  from  the  conventional  orthodox  ways  of  thinking  are 
placed  on  a  plane  with  fornication,  murder,  and  robbery. 

The  ethics  of  these  preacher-bishops  reveals  also  the  inevita- 
ble effect  of  aristocratic  over-lordship.  Basil  was  imperious 
and  domineering.  Even  in  the  eulogy  by  Gregory  Nazianzien,' 
we  see  the  forceful  will  overstepping  the  bounds  of  meek  and 
lowly  service.  No  admiration  of  ascetic  humility  has  been  an 
antidote  for  ecclesiastical  pride  and  arrogance.  The  frank 
forcefulness  of  Basil  was,  of  course,  temperamental,  but  in  all 
the  great  ecclesiastics  upon  whom  now  came  the  burden  of  a 
sacerdotal  imperialism  the  effect  of  this  over-lordship  is  manifest. 
The  ethics  of  this  period  is  marked  by  the  very  distinct  contrast 
between  the  qualities  needed  for  a  fighting,  organizing,  militant 
sacerdotalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  ascetic,  world-flight, 
pathologically  humble  attitude  of  the  monk  and  hermit.  In 
Basil  are  united  in  wonderful  manner  these  two  extreme  modes 
of  thought  and  feeling,  and  he  becomes  representative  of  a  long 
line  of  haughty,  ascetic  over-lords,  commanding  a  world  of  con- 
fusion and  readjustment  and  moulding  a  new  era  and  a  new  life. 

der  Gegenwart"  (1906),  Teil  I,  Abt.  4,  iste  Halfte.)  Thus  from  Justinian  on 
canon  law  was  a  constituent  part  of  Roman  jurisprudence.  (Consult  v.  Jhcring's 
fascinating  first  volume,  "Der  Geist  des  romischen  Rechts.") 

'  Epistola  218  :  57. 

'  Oratio  43. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    215 

III.      THE   MONASTERY  AND   ASCETICISM 

Asceticism,  as  we  have  seen,  was  first  subordinated  by  Athan- 
asius  to  the  growing  imperial  Bishop's  church.  But  it  had  to 
undergo  a  distinct  change  before  it  could  be  of  the  highest  use- 
fulness to  the  hierarchy.  The  hermit  conserved  much  of  that 
extreme  individualism  with  which  an  organization  built  upon 
authority  cannot  work.  Jesus  and  the  very  earliest  church  had 
scarcely  to  weigh  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  individual 
to  the  external  political  power.  The  world  was  soon  coming  to 
an  end;  the  powers  that  existed  were  ordained  of  God,  and  in 
general  were  for  the  punishment  of  the  wicked  and  the  protec- 
tion of  the  weak.  Even  Paul  appealed  to  Caesar  against  illegal 
violence.  Yet  in  Christianity  there  is  a  constant  appeal  from  all 
outward  authority  to  the  inward  voice  as  final  for  the  individual, 
at  least,  hearing  that  voice.  This  appeal  has  always  been  a  source 
of  danger  to  all  outward  authorities,  no  matter  how  sacred. 

The  hermit  in  his  cell,  seeing  visions,  and  having  left  all  to 
follow  holiness,  was  not  apparently  good  material  for  the  political 
structure  of  the  Bishop's  church.  Yet  in  the  hermit  piety  was 
also  the  element  of  submission.  The  body  and  its  desires  must 
submit  to  the  demands  of  a  higher  ideal.  Hence  as  soon  as  the 
hermit's  cell  became  a  ccenohium,  and  younger  hermits  gathered 
about  an  older  and  venerated  "hero  of  the  ascetic  life,"  the 
virtue  of  submission  and  obedience  was  easily  added  to  those  of 
poverty  and  virginity. 

None  the  less  it  is  evident  that  the  monastic  ethical  ideal  could 
not  remain  the  same  with  the  hermit's  ideal.^  In  the  life  of 
Pachomius  clear  evidences  are  at  hand  that  there  was  a  distinct 
struggle  on  the  part  of  the  cloistered  monks  with  the  original 
primitive  ideal.  The  monastery  of  Pachomius  was  not  the  first 
of  such  groups,  but  he  gave  them  central  organization,  special 
rules,  and  seems  to  have  fought  the  battles  needed  on  the  one 

^  Cf.  Harnack,  A.:  "Das  Monchtum,  seine  Ideale  und  seine  Geschichte," 
Giessen,  1881;  5th  ed.,  1901.  English  translation  by  Charles  R.  Gillett,  New 
York,  1895.  • 


2i6  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

hand  against  the  solitary  ideal  of  the  hermit,  and  on  the  other 
of  the  bishop-conception  in  the  secularized  church.* 

This  monastic  ideal  was  a  highly  composite  product.  It 
involved  not  only,  as  Harnack  says,  flight  from  the  world,  but 
also  flight  from  the  world  in  the  church.^  It  had  within  it  the 
remains  of  the  Egyptian  religiosity  cultivated  through  thousands 
of  years,  whose  main  passion  was  for  ritual  perfection  as  a  key 
to  personal  immortality.^  When  one  notices  the  enormous  place 
this  consuming  longing  for  personal  immortality  had  in  early 
Christianity,  it  becomes  perfectly  evident  that  its  source  was  not 
the  Old  Testament  nor  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  nor  even  the 
mysticism  of  Paul.  It  is  in  the  monastery  that  we  find  it  mainly 
developed,  and  the  thought  forces  itself  upon  us  that  the  Egyptian 
religiosity  has  made  itself  deeply  felt,  in  part,  indeed,  through 
Alexandrine  Neoplatonism,  but  perhaps  also  more  than  we 
realize  directly  through  the  Egyptian  monastic  movement. 
Certainly  in  it  we  see  the  over-emphasis  upon  this  hope,  and  a 
transposition  of  emphasis.  So  that  to-day  the  average  Christian 
thinker  regards  a  religion  without  a  doctrine  of  personal  im- 

'  The  writer  depends  upon  the  French  translation  of  the  Coptic  and  Arabic 
versions  by  Amelineau,  "Annales  du  Musee  Guimet,"  tome  XVII;  "Monu- 
ments pour  servir  h.  I'histoire  de  I'Egj'pte  chretienne  au  IV  siecle,  histoire  de  St. 
Pakhome  et  ses  communantes,"  Paris,  1889,  and  upon  the  history  by  the  same 
author:  "De  historia  Lausiaca,"  Paris,  1887;  see  also  the  criticisms  and  com- 
mentary by  Griitzmacher:  "Pachomius  und  das  alteste  Klosterleben,"  Freiburg, 
1896.  The  scepticism  of  Weingarten  concerning  Pachomius  ("Ursprung  des 
Monchthums,"  pp.  50-53)  is  far  too  sweeping,  and  there  seems  little  reason  for 
doubting  the  existence  of  cloistered  Christian  monks  very  early  in  the  history  of 
Egyptian  Christianity,  even  before  the  time  of  Pachomius  (c/.  Butler,  Dom 
Cuthbert:  "The  Lausiac  History  of  Palladius  in  Texts  and  Studies,"  edited 
by  J.  Armitage  Robinson,  vol.  VI,  i,  1898,  pp.  230-256).  Nor  is  there  any 
reasonable  doubt  concerning  the  influence  of  Athanasius  on  the  development, 
even  if  we  may  hesitate  in  dogmatically  affirming  or  denying  his  authorship  of 
the  Vita  Antonii.  See  for  discussion,  p.  194  note.  Cf.  the  work  on  Palladius,  by 
Cuthbert  Butler,  ad  loc.  cit.,  and  cj.  Preuschcn,  Erwin:  "Palladius  und  Rufinus, 
ein  Bcitrag  zur  Quellenkunde  des  altestcn  Monchtums,"  1897. 

^  Harnack,  A.:  "Das  Monchtum,"  etc.,  pp.  16,  18.  English  translation,  pp. 
17,  20. 

'  Cf.  Breasted,  Jas.  H.:  "History  of  Egypt,"  1905,  pp.  62-73,  ^"*^  Erman, 
Adolf:   "Die  agyp»ische  Religion,"  Berlin,  1905,  pp.  87-147. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    217 

mortality  as  wellnigh  unthinkable.  Yet  the  Old  Testament 
religion  made  little  of  it.  Buddhism  is  wholly  without  it,  and 
nearly  all  modern  philosophic  substitutes  for  Christianity,  in 
spite  of  intense  religious  feeling,  generally  either  ignore  or  deny 
the  doctrine. 

This  passion  for  personal  eternal  life  gives  the  early  monastic 
ideal  an  almost  selfish  egotistical  character,  borrowed  from  the 
hermit-conception  out  of  which  it  sprang.  In  fact,  we  see  that 
as  Pachomius  turns  for  perfection  to  the  hermit-life  away  from 
his  former  Christian  loving  and  helpful  activity,  he  does  so  dis- 
tinctly because  he  thinks  there  is  a  higher  perfection  obtainable 
than  by  such  activities.  He  had  himself  been  brought  to  Chris- 
tianity by  the  kindly  offices  of  Christians  to  the  thirsty  recruits,* 
and  busied  himself  with  the  poor  and  the  sick,  both  as  a  Serapis 
monk  and  as  a  Christian,  but  as  he  takes  up  the  life  of  a  hermit 
he  renounces  these  things.^  So  that  in  the  midst  of  the  very 
monastic  ideal  itself  there  is  a  dualism.  Between  the  extremes 
of  the  silent  seclusion  of  the  Trappist  monk  and  the  activities  of 
the  modern  lay- Jesuit  there  are  all  shades  of  attempted  synthesis. 
But  the  antithesis  is  there.  The  monks  of  Egypt  not  only  sup- 
ported themselves,  but  by  industry,  co-operative  organization, 
and  great  frugality,  as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  the  expenses  of 
family  fell  away,  became  rich  and  were  able  to  contribute  to  the 
poor.  In  the  rules  of  Pachomius  ^  work  and  organization  are 
constantly  presupposed,  and  food  is  to  be  supplied  in  the  inter- 

'  Cj.  Kriiger's  scepticism  in  regard  to  the  story,  in  "  Theologische  Littera- 
turzeitung,"  1890,  col.  620  ("Revue  of  Annales  du  Musee  Guimet,"  tome  XVII, 
Paris,  1889,  "Histoire  de  Saint  Pakhome  et  de  ses  Communantes.  Documents 
coptes  et  arabes  inedits,  publics  et  traduits  par  E.  Amelineau"),  and  for  the 
story  "Annales  du  Musee  Guimet,"  tome  XVII,  p.  316  seq. 

"  "Cette  action  de  servir  beaucoup  de  gens  dans  un  village  n'est  pas  le  fait 
d'un  moine,  mais  celle  des  pretres  et  des  vieillards  fideles,"  "Annales  du  Musee 
Guimet,"  p.  345,  Amelineau's  translation. 

^  The  rules  are  translated  into  German  from  the  Ethiopian  version,  edited  by 
Dillmann:  " Chrestomathia  ^^thiopica,"  Leipsic,  1866;  by  Konig,  Ed.;  "Die 
Regeln  des  Pachomius  aus  dem  Athiopischen  iibersetzt  und  mit  Anmerkungen 
versehen  in  Theologische  Studien  und  Kritiken,"  1878,  pp.  323-337,  and  into 
Latin  by  Jerome,  in  Migne's  "Patrologia  Latina,"  tome  XXIII  (vol.  II  of  Jer- 
ome's works},  cols.  65-86. 


2i8  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

ests  of  strength  for  this  work.  "Let  every  one  eat  and  drink, 
and  according  to  their  food  give  them  service,  preventing  neither 
fasting  nor  eating,  only  (seeing  that)  the  food  is  strong  for  the 
strong  and  mild  for  the  weak"  (Ethiopian  version),  and,  unless 
Jerome  is  wholly  untrustworthy,  into  the  rules  entered  also 
the  element  of  education,*  as,  indeed,  is  assumed  in  the  older 
Ethiopian  version,  where,  after  the  devotional  meeting  of  the 
order,  each  goes  to  his  dwelling-place  discussing  or  reading 
the  lesson  of  the  day.  Nor  was  this  cultural  element  wholly 
added  on  to  the  monastic  institution.  Even  the  Serapis  monks 
acted  to  some  extent  as  the  apostles  of  charity  and  letters.^ 
It  lies  also  in  the  very  nature  of  such  a  life  of  contemplation  and 
devotion  that  it  should  conserve  the  sacred  traditions  of  the 
past.  We  have  only  to  think  of  the  priestly  writings  (hiero- 
glyphics) of  Egypt  to  see  how  naturally  an  Egyptian  monastic 
institution  turned  to  the  conservation  of  sacred  writings  of 
Christian  character. 

The  second  great  force  in  this  development  was  the  passion 
for  personal  purity  represented  in  the  main  by  sexual  continence. 
The  whole  monastery  movement  is  under  the  sway  of  this  intense 
longing  for  "  perfection."  The  legend  of  Anthony  represents  him 
as  going  from  one  sacred  person  to  another  to  gather  the  virtues 
of  all,^  and  when  a  hermit  hears  of  one  "more  perfect"  he 
straightway  visits  him.  Jerome  relates  in  his  life  of  Paulus 
how  Anthony  was  dwelling  in  a  solitary  place,  and  it  occurred 
to  him  "  that  no  monk  more  perfect  had  taken  up  abode  in  the 
desert,"  but  it  is  revealed  to  him  that  one  "more  perfect"  lived 
in  the  desert,  and  he  ought  to  visit  him;  so  at  the  age  of  ninety 

'  "Qui  rudis  monasterium  fucrit  ingressus,  doccbitur  prius  qux  debeat  ob- 
servare:  et  cum  doctus  ad  universa  consenserit,  dabunt  ei  viginti  Psalmos  et  duas 
Epistolas  Apostoli,  aut  alterius  Scripturae  partem.  Et  si  litteras  ignoraverit, 
hora  prima,  et  tertia,  et  sexta  vadet  ad  eum  qui  docere  potest,  et  qui  ei  fucrit 
delegatus,  et  stabit  ante  ilium,  ct  discet  studiosissime,  cum  omni  gratiarum 
actione."     Rcgula  139.     Hieronymus.     (MPL,  XXIII,  78  B.) 

'  C/.  Brunet  dc  Presles,  C.  M.  W.:  "M(5moire  sur  le  Serapeum  dc  Memphis  in 
Memoires  prcsentes  a  I'Acaddmie  des  Inscriptions,"  series  I,  vol.  II,  pp.  552-576. 

•  "  Vita  Antonii,"  §  4. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    219 

he  sets  off.^  The  conception  of  perfection  varies,  of  course, 
with  the  level  of  culture,  the  racial  character,  and  the  individual 
peculiarity  of  the  seeker  after  it.  But  two  or  three  things  mark 
especially  the  monastic  ideal  as  we  find  it  affecting  the  message 
of  fourth  and  fifth  century  Christianity.  In  the  first  place, 
although  intensely  orthodox,  perfection  is  not,  and  never  has 
been,  in  the  monastic  development  resolved  into  a  simply  intel- 
lectual correctness.  From  Pachomius  to  Francis  of  Assisi  the 
interest  is  only  secondarily  intellectual.  Orthodoxy  is  assumed, 
but  orthodoxy  is  not  primarily  what  accords  with  the  facts,  but 
what  is  handed  down  by  tradition.  Authority  and  not  reason 
is  the  basis  of  the  search  for  perfection. 

In  the  second  place,  perfection  is,  like  the  conception  of  holi- 
ness in  post-captivity  Judaism,  largely  to  be  resolved  into  ritual 
observance.  Prayer  and  fasting  are  in  themselves  pleasing  to 
God,  and  the  ascetic  hero  by  pain  actually  does  draw  nigh  to 
perfection. 

But  thirdly,  the  virtues  of  the  canonical  books  are  taken  up, 
however  unequally  in  the  emphasis,  into  the  monastic  concep- 
tion of  perfection.  So  that  love,  gentleness,  truth,  faithfulness, 
and  particularly  such  group-virtues  as  concord  and  the  apos- 
tolic ideals  of  unselfishness  and  sacrifice,  have  a  place  even 
when  world-flight  seems  most  to  contradict  this  active  social 
ethics. 

Then  again  the  world  of  monastic  life,  though  an  unnatural 
world,  was  still  a  world  in  which  living  together  compelled  the 
formation  of  a  social  rule  of  life.  In  the  first  rules  of  Pachomius 
it  is  easy  to  see  the  various  social  problems  that  arose.  The 
moment  that  monasticism  was  drawn  into  the  service  of  the 
Bishop's  church  this  social  side  became  pronounced.  Two 
things  happened.  The  Bishop's  church  became  monasticized 
and  the  monastery  became  secularized.  The  resulting  compro- 
mise had  all  sorts  of  shadings.  Far  into  history  the  hermit  was 
still  recognized  as  a  grade  of  Catholic  perfection,  and  in  modem 
days  the  lay-brother  and  the  lay-member  of  the  society  of  Jesus 

»  §  7  of  "Vita  S.  Pauli  Primi  ErmitcE."     M.  P.  L.,  tome  XXIII,  col.  22. 


220  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

represent  the  secularizing  influence  of  the  imperial  ambition; 
but  in  all  grades  personal  perfection  is  kept  constantly  in  view. 

And  lastly,  the  monastery  became  the  refuge  for  many  con- 
ceptions most  prominent  in  primitive  Christianity  but  incom- 
patible with  the  secularization  of  the  Bishop's  church.  Thus 
in  it  we  find  conserved  the  primitive  communism,  the  primitive 
under-valuation  of  the  social  order,  the  primitive  estimate  of 
"saints"  as  being  all  on  a  level  of  possible  attainment  of  holiness. 
Amidst  an  organization  that  was  becoming  more  and  more 
aristocratic  in  its  temper  and  government,  the  monastery  re- 
mained a  refuge  for  a  mutilated  democratic  ideal.  Thus  this 
ideal  constantly  reacts  upon  the  hierarchy.  Ambrose  and  Basil 
often  revert  with  a  certain  longing  to  the  primitive  communism, 
although  they  realized  that  it  was  utterly  incompatible  with 
either  the  secularized  church  or  the  social  order  with  which  that 
church  was  preparing  its  elaborate  Middle-Age  compromise.^ 

The  struggle  between  the  two  ideals,  the  aristocratic  imperialism 
of  the  Bishop's  church,  in  which  the  individual  "lay-member" 
was  more  and  more  utterly  subordinated  to  the  priestly  and 
sacramental  organization,  and  the  relative  communal  democracy 
and  individualism  of  the  monastery  in  which  the  unordained 
man  might  yet  "attain"  to  the  highest  perfection,  has  never 
quite  ceased.  If  any  one  doubts  this  let  him  inquire  as  to  how 
the  members  of  the  recently  suppressed  congregations  view  the 
papal  organization. 

The  compromise,  however,  was  effected.  The  priesthood  of 
the  Bishop's  church  accepted  celibacy  and  was  in  other  ways 
"  monasticized  " ;  the  monastery  became  the  active  agent  for  the 
spread  of  the  influence  of  the  imperial  hierarchy.  And  although 
at  each  new  revival  of  the  monastic  ideal  the  sacramental  im- 
perialism has  resisted  the  movement  as  long  as  it  dared ,^  yet 
in  the  end  it  has  always  on  the  one  hand  accepted  the  compro- 

'  C/.,  among  many  passages,  Ambrose,  "De  Offic."  i  :  28  :  132,  and  Basil, 
Epistola,  150,  §  3. 

*  Francis  of  Assisi  and  Rome.  Cf.  "Vie  de  Francis  d'Assisi  par  P.  Sabatier," 
1896,  pp.  101-116.  English  translation  by  Mrs.  Louise  S.  Houghton,  New 
York,  1S94,  pp.  88-102. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    221 

mise,  and  on  the  other  known  how  to  subordinate  in  large 
measure  the  monastic  enthusiasm  for  its  own  ends.  Thus  the 
conception  of  a  kingdom  of  God,  a  righteous  community  with 
God's  will  the  living  law,  survived  on  the  one  hand  in  the 
ecclesiastical  Bishop's  church  with  its  world-wide  ambition,  but 
with  all  manner  of  concessions  to  the  world  it  hoped  to  rule; 
and  on  the  other  hand  in  the  monastic  community  in  which 
special  holiness  was  the  aim  of  a  communal  life  that,  however, 
resigned  itself  to  a  but  partial  realization  of  the  communal 
dream,  and  weighed  itself  down  by  the  maintenance  of  foreign 
remnants  of  past  religiosity. 

IV.      THE   bishop's   CHURCH   AND   CULTURE 

The  Bishop's  church  not  only  accepted  the  empire,  but  began 
to  occupy  itself  with  the  art  and  culture  of  the  passing  Roman 
world.  It  lay  in  the  very  Jewish  origin  of  Christianity  that  it 
should  not  be  hostile  to  learning  and  letters.  However  exclusive 
pharisaic  Judaism  became  at  one  time  in  its  history,  yet  in  all 
ages  Judaism  has  been  foremost  to  acquire  such  elements  of 
learning  as  it  could  make  useful. 

So  the  new  Nicene  Christianity  was  along  the  line  of  sound 
tradition  from  Paul  on  in  taking  what  elements  it  could  from  the 
superior  literary  culture  of  the  pagan  past.  The  rigid  ideal  of  the 
monastery,  indeed,  should  cut  off  the  seeker  after  its  perfection 
from  all  the  cultural  acquirements  of  the  forsaken  world.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact  the  monastery  directly  and  indirectly  has 
served  a  most  useful  purpose  in  the  preservation  of  that  very 
culture  it  had  itself  foresworn. 

Very  early,  therefore,  we  have  attempts  at  history  in  the  Acts 
of  the  apostles;  and,  indeed,  as  all  history  was  more  or  less 
biographical,  the  canonical  gospels  may  almost  be  included. 
In  the  new  Nicene  Bishop's  church  the  impulse  was  strongly 
felt  to  continue  this  historical  work,  and  we  cannot  pass  the 
historical  and  literary  activity  of  this  period  without  glancing 
at  its  ethics  and  ideals.     A  foremost  figure  in  the  literary  move- 


222  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN    ETHICS 

ment  of  the  period  is  Eusebius  of  Caesarea/  In  a  credulous  and 
uncritical  age  Eusebius  seems  to  have  been  cool  and  careful. 
There  is  no  such  acceptance  of  miracle  and  wonder-working  as 
in  Sozomen,  and  in  general  he  seeks  to  give  his  authorities. 
Yet  the  impression  of  the  condition  of  the  church  made  by  his 
history  is  unpleasant  and  saddening.  He  seems  conscious  of 
the  dawning  of  a  new  age,  but  unconscious  of  the  wide  chasm 
that  lay  between  the  ethical  ideals  of  the  New  Testament  and 
those  of  the  Bishop's  church. 

Several  things  stand  out  plainly  in  the  history.  The  ethics 
are  dominated  by  the  needs  of  the  growing  ecclesiastical  im- 
perialism. Hence  "unity  of  opinion"  is  the  foremost  virtue. 
Eusebius  was  fully  in  accord  with  Constantine  in  demanding 
submission  by  the  extremes  of  both  factions  in  the  Arian  struggle 
to  the  will  of  the  majority,  and  the  despotism  of  the  ecclesiastical 
leadership  seemed  to  him  fully  justified  in  the  interests  of  this 
"  unity."  ^  For  Constantine  the  interests  of  the  empire  demanded 
religious  uniformity,  and  Eusebius  therefore  fills  his  pages  with 
criticism  of  the  "heretics"  whose  "impious  blasphemies"  cast 
shadows  on  this  fair  unity.  He  has  no  sort  of  insight  into  the 
ethical  situations  which  produced  the  Novatian  and  Marcionite 
struggles,  and  no  comprehension  of  the  intellectual  cravings 
which  gave  rise  to  Gnosticism,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
in  his  own  intellectual  life  he  had  found  Origen  so  highly  fruitful. 

The  imperial  dream  overshadows  all  else,  and  unless  the 
church  was  "one"  this  dream  seemed  impossible,  hence  the 

'  Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  in  Palestine,  was  born  about  260,  probably  in  Palestine, 
and  died  about  339  or  340.  He  was  a  most  industrious  and  prolific  writer  (see, 
for  full  account,  Lightfoot's  life  of  him  in  Smith  and  Wace's  "Dictionary  of 
Christian  Biography,"  vol.  II,  1880,  pp.  308-348).  The  works  that  interest  us 
especially  are  his  "Historia  Ecclesia"  (iKKXrjjiaffTiKr]  Itrropla),  in  ten  books, 
and  his  "Vita  Constantini"  (eU  rbv  ^Lov  rod  fxaKaptov  KufffTavrlfov  rod 
fiaffiX^us),  in  four  books,  together  with  the  oration  of  Eusebius  on  Constantine. 
The  fullest  text  is  that  of  Migne,  and  the  history  has  been  often  translated, 
the  best  translation  being  that  by  A.  C.  McGifTcrt  and  Ernest  C.  Richardson, 
"  Life  of  Constantine, "  in  the  "Nicene  and  Post-Niccnc  Fathers,"  second  series, 
vol.  I,  where  fullest  literature  is  given. 

*  Cf.  "Vita  Constantini,"  chaps.  64  and  65. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    223 

enormous  and  increasing  emphasis  upon  "unity  of  faith," 
meaning  by  that  unity  of  opinion/  The  supreme  virtues  are 
"obedience"  and  "submission,"  as  must  always  be  the  case  in 
a  fighting  organization. 

And  again  the  situation  produced  the  false  estimate  of 
martyrdom.  It  had  meant  so  much  for  the  ecclesiastical  organ- 
ization that  men  and  women  had  faced  torture  and  death  for 
their  convictions,  that  the  tendency  is  soon  noticed  to  treat 
martyrdom  as  a  good  in  itself  and  to  ascribe  to  the  martyrs  a 
special  and  sanctifying  power.^  Hence  also  the  ethical  ideals 
are  often  debased  by  fanaticism  and  mingled  with  sensuous  and 
unworthy  motives,  the  exchange  of  hours  of  pain  for  an  eternity 
of  bliss,  and  the  reverence  for  the  martyrs  was  soon  exchanged 
for  prayers  to  them;  and  the  substitution  of  their  intercession 
for  the  free  gift  of  forgiveness. 

The  politic  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Bishop's  church  constantly 
tended  to  a  "middle  way"  in  its  treatment  of  ethical  questions. 
The  necessities  of  an  organization  that  now  grew  with  tropical 
luxuriance,  but  which  began  increasingly  to  embrace  all  sorts 
of  spiritual  and  ethical  laxness,  forced  upon  the  leaders  like 
Eusebius  patience  with  ethical  mediocrity  and  impatience  with 
any  extreme  puritanism.  The  monastery  became  the  outlet 
for  such  vigorous  ethical  force  as  could  not  reconcile  itself  with 
the  via  media  of  the  politic  bishops. 

Moreover,  in  the  history  of  Eusebius  we  may  see  plainly  the 
growing  distance  between  the  Bishop's  church  as  a  sacramental 
priestly  organization  and  the  people.  He  makes  a  daring  com- 
parison between  the  gathering  at  Pentecost  and  the  Nicene 
council  to  the  advantage  of  the  latter:  "But  that  assembly  was 
less,  in  that  not  all  who  composed  it  were  ministers  of  God;  but 
in  the  present  company  the  numbers  of  bishops  exceeded  two 
hundred  and  fifty,  while  that  of  the  presbyters  and  deacons  in 
their  train,  and  the  crowd  of  acolytes  and  other  attendants,  was 

*  Cf,  treatment  of  Novatus  Ecc.  Hist.,  VI  :  43  :  1-22;  of  Paul  of  Samosata, 
VII  :  27  :  I  /. 

^  Cf.  "Martyrs  of  Palestine." 


224  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

altogether  beyond  computation."  *  For  Eusebius,  as  for 
Socrates,  Sozomen,  Rufinus,  and  Theodoret,  the  church  is  sub- 
stantially the  ordained  clergy.  The  priesthood  of  all  believers 
and  the  apostolic  democracy  has  gone  altogether.  Yet  the 
church  is  not  wholly  a  centralized  imperialism. 

To  this  last  step  the  force  and  political  wisdom  of  Constantino 
contributed  much.  In  Eusebius  we  see  how  the  imperial  pro- 
tection rendered  the  bishops  servile  instruments  of  the  royal 
will.  It  was,  alas,  only  too  natural.  The  church  at  last  had 
come  to  her  own,  and  the  imperial  master  who  broke  her  bonds 
easily  substituted  a  golden  bondage  from  which  as  yet  no 
ecclesiasticism  in  any  age  has  completely  freed  itself.  The 
quiet  substitution  of  himself  as  head  of  the  church  by  Constan- 
tine  is  hidden  under  vast  deference  to  the  orthodox,  i.  e.,  sub- 
missive bishops.  He  says:  "You  are  bishops  whose  jurisdic- 
tion is  within  the  church:  I  also  am  a  bishop,  ordained  of  God 
to  oversee  whatever  is  external  to  the  church."  ^  And  in  his 
power  as  ruler  he  appoints  the  Sunday  as  a  special  occasion  for 
prayer.^  When  one  remembers  that  he  was  not  even  at  that 
time  baptized,  one  sees  how  far  the  ecclesiastical  organization 
had  struck  hands  with  the  imperial  power  on  the  basis  of  a  com- 
promise. On  the  cringing  flattery  of  Eusebius  we  must  not 
dwell  too  hardly.  Far  worse  rulers  have  been  even  more 
cringed  to  by  stronger  ecclesiastics  in  all  ages;  and  no  doubt 
Eusebius  had  a  well-grounded  respect  and  affection  for  the 
strong,  mild,  and  politic  Constantine  to  whom  the  church  owed 
so  much. 

Constantine  speaks  fair  words  for  religious  freedom  and 
responsibility:  "  Perceiving  long  ago  that  religious  liberty  ought 
not  to  be  denied,  but  that  it  ought  to  be  granted  to  the  judgment 
and  desire  of  each  individual  to  perform  his  religious  duties 
according  to  his  own  choice."  *    But  as  soon  as  he  has  power 

'  "Vita  Constantini,"  E.  C  Richardson's  translation,  III  :  8. 

"  "Vita  Constantinii,"  IV  :  24. 

'  "Vita  Constantini,"  IV  :  18. 

*  Imperial  Decree,  Euscb.  Ecc.  Hist.,  X  :  V  :  2. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    225 

we  find  him  persecuting  under  episcopal  guidance  the  heretics, 
and  later  on  even  the  pagans.  Liberty  of  conscience  and  the 
superiority  of  sincere  intellectual  misjudgment  to  insincere 
orthodoxy  is  not  even  yet  an  accepted  ethical  canon. 

The  continuation  of  Eusebius's  history  by  Socrates^  marks 
no  change  in  the  main  ethical  conceptions  upon  which  we  have 
so  far  dwelt.  True  it  is  that  Socrates  is  fairer  in  his  treatment  of 
heretics  than  Eusebius,  probably  because  he  was  hunself  tainted 
by  Novatianism.  But  in  his  pages  we  trace  the  same  struggle 
going  on  by  the  bishops  for  the  consolidation  of  the  ecclesiastical 
empire.  The  miracle  and  the  prodigious  find  even  more  ready 
credence  by  Socrates  than  by  Eusebius,  although  he  is  superior 
in  this  respect  to  his  contemporary  Sozomen^  whose  credulity 
passes  all  bounds.  More  and  more  pronouncedly  do  the  ethics 
become  those  of  a  great  compromise  between  the  secular  state 
and  the  bishop's  sacramental  organization.  Yet  in  both  Soc- 
rates and  Sozomen  we  see  a  people's  church  not  altogether  to 
be  identified  with  the  bishop's  sacramental  organization.  On 
the  one  hand  the  ascetic  development  grew  up  independent  of 
and  even  hostile  to  the  somewhat  secularized  church,  and  on 
the  other  the  democracy  found  expression  in  the  sectarian 
development  which  fills  the  pages  of  Eusebius,  Socrates,  and 
Theodoret.  With  the  first  the  Bishop's  church  never  has  dared 
to  wage  open  war;  but  with  the  second  it  was  always  a  conflict 
for  life  or  death. 

The  low  literary  ethics  of  this  period  the  new  Christian  liter- 
ature shared  with  paganism.  Either  Socrates  or  Sozomen  stole 
without  conscience  one  from  the  other.     Deliberate  forgery  in 

*  Born  in  Constantinople  about  380,  he  died  .some  time  after  439.  Little  is 
known  of  his  life.  He  was  either  a  Novatian  or  had  reasons  for  special  interest 
in  the  Novatian  Church.  Cf.  G.  Lceschke's  article  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Real- 
encykU.padie,"  XVIII  (1906),  pp.  481-486,  and  Smith  and  Wace's  "Dictionary 
of  Christian  Biography,"  III  (1887),  pp.  709-711,  by  Wm.  Milligan. 

^  Born  in  Palestine  about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  and  living  in 
Constantinople  at  the  court  of  Theodosius  the  Younger,  little  is  known  of  him. 
CJ.  Smith  and  Wace's  "Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography"  (bv  Wm.  Milligan), 
vol.  IV  (1887),  pp.  722-723. 


226  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

a  good  cause  was  not  uncommon.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  forged 
letters  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  Basil  and  his 
uncle.  "You  forged  one  letter,"  Basil  writes,^  "and  took  it  to 
me  from  our  very  holy  uncle";  the  forgery  was  found  out,  but 
it  did  not  prevent  two  more  attempts.  Stories  are  related  of 
Pachomius  as  though  by  eye-witnesses,  which  are  mere  copies 
of  the  Coptic  "life"  from  which  all  stole  and  to  which  all  added.^ 
The  forged  decretals,  the  pseudo-apostolic  writings,  and  the  inter- 
polation of  passages  and  extirpation  of  others  are  the  common 
evidence  of  the  low  standard  of  truthfulness  common  to  the 
period.^ 

An  interesting  insight  into  the  ethical-religious  life  of  that  day 
is  gained  in  those  religious  romances  which  have  been  so  often 
taken  for  sober  history.  Whether  Athanasius  wrote  the  "  Vita 
Antonii"  *  or  not  it  can  hardly  have  been  meant  for  anything  but 
a  pious  romance,  of  which  literature  we  have  the  remains  in 
Jerome  and  perhaps  also  in  the  famous  "Historia  Lausiaca  of 
Palladius,''  ^  whose  pages  abound  in  the  stories  which  must  have 
circulated  freely  as  incitements  to  devotion  in  this  period.  It  is 
impossible  to  take  the  accounts  of  Palladius  as  sober  matter  of 

»  Epistola  58. 

^  Cf.  Am^lineau,  E.:  "Histoire  de  St.  Pakhome,"  Paris,  1889,  and  "De  his- 
toria Lausiaca,"  Paris,  1887. 

*  C/.  the  evident  confusion  of  Jerome,  in  the  "Life  of  Malchus,"  between  him- 
self and  "the  source  of"  his  information.  He  related  as  an  eye-witness  things 
evidently  told  him  by  Bishop  Evagrius.  The  mere  fact  that  Gregory  of  Nazian- 
zus  attributes  the  "Vita  Antonii"  to  Athanasius,  nine  years  after  the  death  of 
Athanasius,  does  not  therefore  prove  that  he  was  the  author  or  even  that  Gregory 
thought  he  was. 

*  Cf.  discussion  under  "Athanasius." 

"  Bishop  Palladius  was  born  about  368,  although  the  date  is  uncertain,  and  he 
died  about  430.  He  was  the  friend  and  defender  of  Chrysostom,  assuming  that 
the  " Dialogue"  is  also  by  him.  His  " Historia  Lausiaca"  was  written  probably 
about  405  to  420,  and  receives  its  name  from  the  one  to  whom  it  was  addressed 
(rb  AavffarKSy).  The  most  exact  researches  are  by  Erwin  Preuschen  ("Pal- 
ladius und  Rufinus,"  1897)  and  Dom  Cuthbert  Butler  ("The  Lausiac  History  of 
Palladius,"  1898  and  1906,  in  "Texts  and  Studies,"  edited  by  J.  A.  Robinson, 
vol.  VI).  C/.,  also,  Lucius,  P.  E.:  "Die  Qucllcn  dcr  iiltercn  Geschichte  des 
agyptischen  Monchtums,  Zeitschrift  fur  Kirchcngcschichtc,"  edited  by  Th. 
Bricger,  VH  (1885),  pp.  163-198. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    227 

fact,  although,  no  doubt,  he  had  seen  nuich  that  he  relates. 
When  one  reads  the  contents  of  the  novels  and  tales  of  that 
period  given  us  by  Rohde,*  with  their  superabounding  wonders, 
strange  animals  and  miracles,  their  struggles  against  fate,  and 
tales  of  love's  faithfulness,  one  is  tempted  to  see  in  Jerome's 
"Life  of  St.  Hilarion,"  "Life  of  Paulus  the  Hermit,"  and 
"Malchus  the  Captive  Monk,"  an  effort  to  do  for  the  Christian 
society  what  these  mediocre  artists  were  doing  for  the  pagan 
community. 

Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  these  stories  open  our  eyes  to  the 
strange  religious  world  in  which  the  Bishop's  church  had  its 
place.  The  monks  retained  memories  of  the  primitive  com- 
munistic ideals.  Malchus  sighs  for  his  captivity  after  he  had 
left  his  cell,  and  seeing  the  ants  at  work,  he  remembers  "how 
Solomon  sends  us  to  the  shrewdness  of  the  ant  and  quickens 
our  sluggish  faculties  by  setting  before  us  such  an  example,"  and 
he  longs  "  to  imitate  the  ant  in  the  monk's  cell  where  toil  is  for 
the  community,  and  since  nothing  belongs  to  any  one,  all  things 
belong  to  all."  ^ 

These  monks  and  hermits  live  in  a  world  of  wonders  and 
strange  adventures  which,  no  doubt,  were  accepted  about  as 
the  pagan  world  accepted  the  stories  of  fauns  and  satyrs. 

Jerome  ^  was  one  of  the  mosrt  famous  and  useful  scholars  of 
the  period.  He  was  fanatical  and  narrow  in  temper,  and 
pressed,  for  instance,  his  heresy  case  against  Origen  with  a 
bitter  a'nd  unchristian  partisanship.     But  that  was,  alas,  the 

'  "Der  griechische  Roman  und  seine  Vorlaufer,"  2d  ed.,  Leipsic,  1900,  pp. 
310-554.  *  "Life  of  Malchus,"  §  7. 

'  Hieronymus,  or  Jerome,  was  born  at  Stridon,  in  Pannonia,  about  340-350. 
He  died  about  420.  For  full  account  of  him  and  his  writings,  see  Smith  and 
Wace's  "Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,"  vol.  Ill  (1882),  pp.  29-50,  by  Wm. 
H.  Freemantle.  His  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Latin  (the  Vulgate  version), 
and  his  defence  of  the  ascetic  life  and  his  propaganda  for  it  in  the  West,  have 
given  him  extraordinary  influence  in  the  later  history  of  the  Roman  church. 
The  best  edition  is  Migne's  reprint  of  Vallarsi,  "Patrologia  Latina,"  vols. 
XXH-XXX,  translation  of  selected  writings  in  the  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene 
Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  H,  pp.  359-381  ("Lives  of  Illustrious  Men"),  and 
vol.  VI  ("Select  Works  and  Letters"). 


228  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

spirit  and  temper  of  the  day.  When  once  Origen  was  proclaimed 
heretical,  then  no  terms  could  be  too  strong  and  too  severe  in 
condemnation  of  him,*  even  though  he  praised  him  unguardedly 
before  and  had  made  him  known  to  the  Western  world  by 
translations.  In  fact,  Jerome,  like  nearly  all  his  ecclesiastical 
contemporaries,  dreaded  only  one  thing — to  be  called  unortho- 
dox. For  him,  "heretics  wjio  depart  from  the  straight  path  of 
the  faith  shall  be  consumed  if  they  will  not  return  to  the  Lord 
whom  they  have  forsaken.^ 

Childish  credulity  is  mingled  with  real  culture  and  learning.' 
For  he  also  lived  in  the  demon-haunted  world  from  which  Chris- 
tianity had  failed  utterly  to  rescue  paganism.  Athanasius, 
Augustine,  Basil,  and  the  highest  and  finest  minds  of  the  period 
were  still  in  bondage  to  demon-fear  which  perfect  love  had  not 
cast  out. 

As  ascetic  Christianity  made  its  way,  the  essentially  dualistic- 
oriental  conception  of  body  and  spirit  reappears,^  and  with  it 
the  despondency  and  world-weariness  which  we  shall  also  find 
in  Augustine.^  No  longer  is  the  sense  of  loving  sonship  the  only 
root  of  ethics  with  Jerome  and  his  contemporaries;  it  is  the  fear 
of  hell  as  well  as  the  longing  for  heaven.® 

The  false  basis  for  ethics  in  this  ascetic  dualistic  estimate  of 
the  body  makes  itself  felt  in  the  whole  attitude  toward  marriage. 
The  sound  common-sense  of  uncorruptcd  Judaism  saw  only 
God's  blessing  in  a  happy  marriage,  the  multiplication  of  the 
race,  and  the  united  life  of  man  and  woman.  For  Jerome  the 
virgin  is  one  degree  higher  than  the  widow,  and  the  widow  a 
degree  higher  than  the  married  faithful  wife.  And  in  fact  the 
only  way  a  mother  can  get  herself  real  sanctity  is  by  guarding  the 
virginity  of  her  daughter  and  thus  becoming  "the  mother-in-law 
of  God."  ' 

»  Cf.  Epist.  6i  :  1-4  MPL,  vol.  XXII,  col.  602. 

*  "Dialogus  ad  Pclagianos,"  i  :  28. 

'  Epistola;  and  his  lives  of  Paulus  the  Hermit  and  of  St.  Hilarion,  etc. 

*  Jerome,  Epist.  22  :  4. 

*  Cf.  Jerome,  Epistola  22:5;    12S  :  4. 

'  Epist.  22:7.  '  Epistola  22  :  20. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    229 

Yet  even  Jerome  felt  the  force  of  healthy  Jewish  thinking  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  now  and  again  enters  upon  a 
feeble  and  qualified  defence  of  marriage/ 

The  result  of  such  teaching  was  the  rousing  of  most  unnatural 
passion/  and  a  reduction  of  piety  to  a  passionate,  vague  physical 
longing  with  corresponding  misuse  of  the  unfortunate  Song  of 
Songs.^  That  this  unhealthy  development  was  challenged  we 
see  in  the  quotations  from  Jovinianus,  whom,  unfortunately,  we 
only  know  in  the  unfair  and  abusive  controversial  writings  of 
Jerome.  But  evidently  Jovinianus  was  not  the  only  one  to 
protest.  The  sanity  of  northern  Europe  has  never  made  full 
surrender  to  oriental  pathological  dualism  at  this  point.  Hence 
Jerome  raised  by  his  writings  on  the  subject  of  virginity  a  storm 
of  protest."  And  the  work  of  Helvidius  is  preserved  to  us  in  the 
intemperate  but  able  reply  of  Jerome.  Helvidius  had  pointed 
out  that  Mary  herself  calls  Joseph  her  husband  and  that  Jesus 
had  brethren  and  sisters. 

In  the  work  of  Jerome  we  see  clearly  what  tremendous  force 
the  cool-headed  political  ambition  of  Rome  had  over  against  the 
divided  East.^  His  letters  are  indeed  most  interesting  as  show- 
ing how  naturally  the  Bishop's  church  fell  a  prey  to  the  central 
Roman  bishopric.  The  Eastern  church  forced  on  the  Western 
her  dogmatic  development  and  her  asceticism,  but  in  doing  so 
wellnigh  lost  her  independence.  For  both  Eastern  and  Western 
churches  the  principle  of  outward  authority  had  triumphed.* 
The  only  question  was  whose  authority  was  supreme. 

At  one  point  the  church  has  much  cause  for  thankfulness  to 
Jerome.  In  spite  of  many  expressions  of  contempt  for  pagan 
literature,  Jerome  really  was  the  father  of  that  monastic  learning 
to  which  we  now  owe  so  much.  No  one  has  spoken  more 
vigorously  for  a  learned  clergy  than  Jerome.  To  both  his  men 
and  women  disciples  he  says:  "Read  often,  learn  all  that  you 

•  Epistolse  22  :  2;    22  :  19-20.  ^  Epist.  22  :  7. 
^  Epistola  22:1  and  6  and  24-25. 

*  Epistolae  45  and  48-49-  *  Epist.  15  :  i. 
^Epistolae  15  14;    22  :  38. 


23©  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

can."  *  And  he  scoffs  vigorously  at  the  ideal  of  ignorance  as 
piety;  "  as  Horace  says: 

'Doctors  alone  profess  the  healing  art, 
And  none  but  joiners  ever  try  to  join.' 

The  art  of  interpreting  Scripture  is  the  only  one  of  which  all 
men  everywhere  claim  to  be  masters.  To  quote  Horace  again: 
'Taught  or  untaught,  we  all  write  poetry.'  The  chatty  old 
woman,  the  doting  old  man,  and  the  wordy  sophist,  one  and  all 
take  in  hand  the  Scriptures,  rend  them  in  pieces,  and  teach  them 
before  they  have  learned  them."  ^  He  was  himself  learned,  and 
even  when  taught  in  a  vision  not  to  overestimate  Cicero,  he 
does  not  abandon  the  classics,^  and  his  letters  teem  with  quota- 
tions and  allusions  to  Virgil,  Horace,  Homer,  and  many  other 
classic  writers.  He  was  a  painstaking  student.  His  Vulgate 
version  is  for  that  uncritical  day  a  wondrous  work,  and  his  own 
style  is  charming  and  strong. 

And  yet  Jerome  is  sad  reading.  The  ethics  are  formalized  and 
externalized  and  orientalized  out  of  all  semblance  to  a  really 
Christian  ethics.  Fasts  and  feast  days*  and  the  reverence  of 
relics  ^  reflect  the  heathen  intrusion.  Fear  takes  the  place  of 
love.  Life  is  bondage  to  law  amidst  the  terrors  of  a  demon- 
world  from  which  alone  sacramental  magic  and  stern  self- 
suppression  can  free  us. 

Moreover,  in  his  letters  we  see  the  natural  outcome  in  a  sordid 
and  greedy  hierarchy.  The  Emperor  Valentine  had  to  pass 
laws  forbidding  priests  and  monks  to  inherit,  so  great  was  the 
misuse  of  death-bed  terror,  and  yet  by  trusteeships  these  laws 
are  evaded  and  disobeyed  '  and  the  description  of  the  life  of  the 
clergy  is  discouraging.  The  canons  of  Nice  and  Elvirae  had 
failed  to  deal  with  the  "agapetae"  effectively,  for  we  still  find 
women  living  with  the  monks  and  priests  in  boasted  purity,  while 
sharing  with  them  bed  and  board. 

'  Epist.  22  :  17. 

'  Epist.  S3  :  6-7.     Freemantle's  translation. 

»  Cf.  Epistolae  58  15;    60  :  5;    61  :  4;    70  :  2-6;    125  :  12. 

*  Epist.  71:6,  *  Epist.  109  :  i.  •  Epist.  52  :  6. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    231 

The  Bishop's  church,  even  at  its  best,  was  not  Christianity, 
and  at  its  worst  was  paganism  of  a  pecuHarly  depressing  char- 
acter. The  learning  of  Jerome  and  Theodoret  has  lost  the 
freedom  and  outlook  that  marked  Greek  culture  at  its  best,  and 
the  ignoble  fear  of  hell  and  longing  for  heaven  rob  even  the 
Stoic  ethics  that  now  passes  for  Christian  of  a  good  deal  of  its 
charm.  Religion  threatens  to  be  swallowed  up  in  religiosity, 
hateful,  fanatical,  and  ambitious.  The  zeal  of  the  monastery 
misdirected  the  religious-ethical  energies  of  the  foremost  races  in 
history  for  nearly  a  thousand  years,  and  although  they  conserved 
for  us  the  pagan  literature,  and  did  advance  agriculture  and 
peace,  their  services  were  but  by-products  of  their  activity. 

The  learning  of  Jerome,  Cassiodorus,  and  of  Gregory  of 
Nursia  was  genuine  and  profound,  but  relatively  unfruitful 
because  essentially  scholastic  and  under  the  shadow  of  authority. 
It  lacked  freedom  and  faith  in  truth.  The  religious-ethical  de- 
velopment of  the  Bishop's  church  was  essentially  the  triumph  of 
a  distorted  conception  of  social  and  individual  righteousness. 
And  the  rendering  relatively  sterile  of  the  religious-ethical 
leadership  was  a  misfortune  it  is  now  quite  impossible  to  estimate 
accurately.     But  it  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  it. 

V.      THE    bishop's    CHURCH    AND   THE   CULT   AND   ITS    ETHICS 

It  is  difficult  to  gather  from  the  scattered  material  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  ethical  ideals  of  this  period  as  seen  in  the  external 
cult.  All  the  elements  that  are  to  become  familiar  to  us  in  the 
Middle-Age  church  are,  however,  now  present.  Churches  and 
chapels  have  arisen  everywhere  attesting  the  living  interest  of 
the  community  in  the  religious  organization.  In  Eusebius's 
famous  discourse  at  Tyre,  given  in  his  history,^  we  have  an  in- 
valuable description  of  a  church  which  shows  how  elaborate  the 
elements  of  the  cult  were.  The  church  is  already  a  "sacred 
place,"  and  hands  and  feet  are  washed  before  entrance  in  the 
caniharus  or  phiala,^  and  Ambrose  warns  virgins  against  un- 

'  Book  X  :  4.  "Euseb.  H.  E.,  lo  :  4  :  40. 


232  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

seemly  talking  and  laughing  during  the  mystery/  on  the  ground 
of  the  special  sacredness  of  the  place.  Churches  were  erected 
as  memorials  for  the  martyrs  ^  and  were  remembered  by  feasts, 
which,  according  to  Augustine,  were  marked  sometimes  by 
excess.  How  early  separate  buildings  were  demanded  cannot 
be  exactly  stated,  but  of  course  the  first  churches  had  no  build- 
ings but  were  the  "churches  at  the  houses"  of  the  more  prosper- 
ous converts,^  and  sacredness  could  only  begin  to  attach  to  the 
place  after  that  period  had  passed.  As  early  as  305  a  church  was 
destroyed  at  Caesarea,^  but  they  must  have  existed  long  before 
that.  During  the  Diocletian  persecution  the  churches  and  the 
bishops  were  the  special  objects  of  attack. 

The  simple  cult  described  by  Pliny  in  his  famous  letter,^  with 
its  hymns,  love-feast,  prayer,  must  soon  have  expanded  under  the 
influence  of  rivalry  with  the  heathen  mystery  into  an  elaborate 
ceremony  from  which  the  uninitiated  were  excluded.  From  the 
early  days  singing  formed  a  large  element  in  the  worship.*  The 
heretical  movements  which  were  often  revivals  of  primitive  en- 
thusiasm and  piety  took  also  to  hymn-singing,  and  in  rivalry  the 
Catholic  party  also  wrote  hymns  and  enriched  the  service  of  the 
"orthodox"  party.  So  Ephraem  the  Syrian  composed  hymns 
to  the  melodies  of  the  heretical  Harmonius  to  wean  the  heretics 
from  the  error  of  their  teaching  and  to  save  the  church,^  and 
Chrysostom  introduced  processions  with  singing  to  outdo  the 
Arians  who  were  successfully  making  propaganda  in  that  way.* 
So  also  Ambrose  in  Milan  enriched  the  service  to  head  off  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  Arians  by  introducing  the  famous  chants 
which  have  played  so  signal  a  part  in  church  history."  So,  no 
doubt,  the  exceedingly  old  ceremonial  of  the  Eastern  church 
grew  slowly  by  concession  and  compromise,  and  with  a  steady 

'  "De  Virgin."  3  :  13.  *  Mapri/^ta.  ^  I  Cor.  16  :  19. 

*  Lactantius  "  De  Mort.  Persccut."  12. 
"  Epist.  97  to  Trajan. 

*  Acts  16  :  25;  and  we  may  see  fragments  of  hymns  in  I  Tim.  3  :  16;  6  :  15; 
II  Tim.  2  :  11-13;  Eph.  5  :  14  and  19-20;  Col.  3  :  16-17. 

^  Sozomen,  E.  H.,  3:16.  *  Sozomen,  E.  H.,  8  :  8. 

*  Cy.  also  Basil,  Ejjist.  207  :  3. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    233 

tendency  to  harden  into  the  formal  lifeless  cult  into  which  both 
simple  and  elaborate  ceremonial  may  easily  lapse/ 

It  was  not  the  Christian  church  nor  the  Jewish  synagogue 
alone  that  saw  the  danger  and  evils  of  image-worship.  Clement 
of  Alexandria  says  that  Pythagoras  and  Zeno  both  forbade  the 
making  of  images,  and  that  Zeno  included  temples;  ^  and  Tertul- 
lian,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  Augustine  all  protested  against 
images.  But  the  cross  and  symbolic  figures  like  the  fish  and  the 
anchor  soon  were  bound  up  with  superstition,  so  that  Julian 
taunts  Christians  with  worshipping  the  wooden  cross.  Then  the 
relics  of  saints  began  to  have  special  value,^  and  in  Augustine's 
time  a  trade  was  driven  with  forged  relics.^ 

Here  again  the  symbolism  of  such  cults  as  that  of  Mithras 
must  have  reacted  on  the  Christian  custom,  and  so  we  find  a 
painting  "of  Christ  or  of  one  of  the  saints,"  Epiphanius  does 
not  remember  which,  hung  up  in  a  church  at  Anablatha  as  a 
curtain,  and  he  indignantly  tears  it  down  and  sends  to  Cyprus 
for  another  to  take  its  place,^  for  it  was  against  the  religion  of 
Christ  to  have  any  image  or  painting  of  a  man  in  a  church. 
Expressions  of  a  simple  natural  curiosity  and  reverence  such  as 
find  expression  in  Gregory  of  Nyssa's  own  case,^  but  which 
were  harmless  antiquarian  interests  did  not  long  retain  this 
character.  The  age  was  far  too  superstitious  and  far  too  un- 
critical to  be  profoundly  moved  by  such  associations.  The 
reverence  for  relics  and  the  hunt  for  them  was  part  of  the 
heritage  of  the  ages,  a  memory  of  the  old  feeling  for  amulets 
and  charms  which  has  never  really  died  out  even  among  edu- 
cated men  and  women  of  the  twentieth  century.  As  the  re- 
ligious enthusiasm  waxed  cold  spiritual  conceptions  were  being 
supplanted  by  mechanical  and  magic  formulae.^ 

■  Cf.  Neale:  "Hymns  of  the  Eastern  Church,"  1863,  and  Koch:  "Geschichte 
des  Kirchenlieds  und  Kirchengesangs  der  christlichen  Kirche,"  vol.  I,  1856. 
"  "Stromata,"  5  :  5  :  28.  ^  Basil,  Epist.  155. 

*  "De  Opere  Monach,"  28.     MPL,  vol.  XL,  col.  575. 
'  Translated  by  Jerome,  in  Epist.  51:9. 
'Epist.  17.     MPG,  46,  c.  1057. 
^  Cf.  the  familiar  passage  Augustine's  Confess.  6:2:2. 


234  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  writers  of  the  period,  Basil,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Jerome, 
assume  a  declension  in  the  morals  of  both  church  and  population, 
but  that  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  either  affirm  or  deny.  We 
cannot  impartially  estimate  the  morality  of  our  own  day  or 
state  definitely  any  tests  by  which  to  measure  it.  What  we  may 
assume,  however,  with  a  fair  amount  of  assurance  is  that  with 
the  growth  of  the  church  as  an  imperial  and  successful  hierarchy, 
on  the  one  hand  men  entered  it  for  a  lower  purpose  than  in  times 
of  persecution  or  neglect,  and  that  on  the  other  the  responsibility 
of  the  layman  was  distinctly  lessened,  and  with  his  responsibility 
also  went  sustaining  strength  as  the  priest  and  bishop  usurped 
the  place  of  the  church. 

From  the  time  of  Constantine  on  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
steady  rush  to  become  "  Christian,"  but  that  there  was  any  cor- 
responding spiritualization  and  moralization  of  the  life  is  less 
likely.  Crass  paganism  thus  received  Christian  baptism,  and 
the  demi-gods  became  saints;  the  mythology  of  Greece  became 
the  miracle-stories  of  the  monastery,  the  magic  of  the  mystery, 
the  sacramental  grace  of  the  altar. 

The  uncritical  credulity  of  the  day,  common  to  pagan  and 
Christian  alike,  accepted  all  kinds  of  miracles  of  healing  as  part 
of  the  regular  cult.  The  exorcist  and  divine  healer  were  regular 
parts  of  the  religious  structure,  and  even  the  most  intelligent  and 
sceptical  observers,  like  Eusebius  and  Augustine,  had  a  simple 
faith  in  miracles  of  resurrection  and  exorcism  of  demons. 
Jerome  fills  his  pages  with  stories  of  pious  wonders  and  miracles 
in  which  the  pagan  centaur  and  satyr  reappear.*  The  effect  of 
superstition  upon  ethical  development  is  always  peculiarly  un- 
fortunate. There  is  an  immediate  transference  of  emphasis 
from  the  responsible  personal  factors  in  life  to  the  irresponsible 
and  impersonal  elements. 

In  no  region  of  our  experience  is  it  more  difficult  and  more 
important  to  trace  cause  and  efTect  than  in  that  of  conduct;  and 
where  superstition  comes  in  with  its  relative  suspension  of  ordi- 
nary causation  the  difficulty  becomes  simply  overwhelming. 

•  "Vita  Pauli,"  8. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    235 

It  is,  no  doubt,  untrue  to  the  facts  to  assume  or  afSrm,  as  some 
have  done,  that  the  world  was  made  credulous  by  Catholic 
Christianity,  but  what  we  may  lament  is  that  upon  spiritual 
Christianity  in  its  earliest  and  highest  inspirations  there  was 
foisted  so  much  credulous  paganism,  both  oriental  and  Jewish, 
as  well  as  Greek  and  Roman.  The  dark  shadows  of  mechanical 
conceptions  of  guilt  such  as  make  Greek  tragedy  at  once  so 
gloomy  and  so  inexplicable  to  us,  where  guilt  and  sin  are  actually 
separable  quantities,  as  for  instance  in  the  (Edipus  of  Sophocles, 
hang  over  much  Christian  thinking  even  before  given  character 
and  place  by  Augustine  in  his  theory  of  original  sin. 

The  cult  took  form  and  character  under  the  influence  of  this 
confusion,  and  becomes  more  and  more  the  setting  for  a  sacra- 
mental magic,  and  less  and  less  the  impartation  of  ethical  and 
religious  inspiration  to  mastery  over  self  and  the  world. 

VI.   THE  CHURCH  AND  HER  THEOLOGY 

It  has  been  a  popular  pulpit  theme  to  trace  the  Roman  deca- 
dence to  its  sexual  excesses.^  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  to  sum  up 
again  what  we  have  said,  the  sexual  excesses  had  their  deeper 
cause  in  the  social  organization,  based  as  it  was  on  slavery  and 
the  ownership  of  the  land  by  a  military  aristocracy.  Slavery 
handed  over  to  the  absolute  power  of  the  master  women  and 
boys,  and  an  idle  and  luxurious  life  stimulated  the  powerful 
passions  which  grow  on  what  they  feed  and  produce  all  the 
strange  enormities  of  unnatural  vice.  Against  this  all  ethical 
religious  life,  whether  Neoplatonic  or  Stoic,  whether  embodied 
in  the  Mithras  cult  or  the  priesthood  of  the  Serapium,  began  to 
protest  even  before  Judaism  and  Christianity  raised  their  voices. 
And  as  in  all  such  cases  there  arose  as  the  form  of  the  protest  a 
sexual  fanaticism.  It  even  went  so  far  as  to  brand  the  natural 
sexual  desire  as  per  se  evil,  and  to  treat  marriage  as  a  concession 
to  the  flesh  and  bar  to  the  highest  holiness. 

Theoretical  dualism  had  probably  about  the  same  relation  to 

^  Following  Augustine  in  "De  Civitate  Dei,"  book  II  :  4-29. 


236  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

this  protest  that  scientific  demonstration  that  alcohol  is  a  poison 
has  to  the  demand  for  total  abstinence.  But  the  whole  treat- 
ment of  the  body  as  evil  was  directly  related  to  the  popular 
dualism,  and  sexual  asceticism  fitted  in  well,  therefore,  with  the 
popular  moral  ideals.  At  the  same  time  there  were  voices 
raised  in  protest  against  these  ideals.  We  know  nothing  of 
Jovinian  save  what  Jerome  tells  us,  and  what  would  we  know  of 
Pelagius  if  so  untrustworthy  a  source  as  Jerome's  writing  against 
him  were  our  only  means  of  information?  Jovinian  at  least 
maintained  the  perfectly  true  proposition  that  to  married  persons 
and  widows  the  same  attainment  in  holiness  was  open  as  to 
monks  and  nuns.^  And  Vigilantius  was,  no  doubt,  only  one  of 
many  to  see  the  absurd  and  immoral  phases  of  the  monastery 
ideal.^  The  church,  however,  had  been  so  absorbed  in  the 
theological  and  Christological  question  that  the  anthropological 
problems  had  never  been  officially  dealt  with.  The  formulation 
which  received  the  nominal  assent  of  the  official  church,  although 
it  neither  understood  nor  really  accepted  it  into  its  life,  was  that 
given  by  the  great  Augustine.^    He  stamped  by  his  transcendent 

'  Cf.  "Hicronymus  Contra  Jovinianum,"  book  I  :  3,  where  the  four  points 
Jerome  contends  against  arc  given  as  (i)  baptized  virgins,  widows,  and  married 
women  are  of  equal  merit;  (2)  those  once  baptized  in  faith  cannot  be  overthrown 
of  the  devil;  (3)  all  food  can  be  taken  with  thanksgiving  and  fasting  has  no 
peculiar  sanctity;    (4)  there  is  only  one  level  of  reward  for  all  in  heaven. 

2  For  Vigilantius,  see  "Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography"  (edited  by  Smith 
and  Wace),  vol.  IV,  pp.  1141-1143,  by  Wm.  H.  Freemantle;  also  Gilly,  Dr. 
W.  H.:  "Vigilantius  and  His  Times,"  London,  1844;  and  Jerome's  diatribe, 
"Contra  Vigilantium." 

^Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo,  born  in  Tagaste,  November  13,  354.  His 
father  was  a  freeman  in  humble  life,  who  remained  a  pagan  until  the  sixteenth 
year  of  Augustine's  life.  His  mother  was  the  famous  Monnica,  whom  church 
history  has  idealized,  but  whose  character,  as  seen  in  the  "Confessions,"  was  not 
extraordinary  for  ethical  insight.  He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  on  the  28th 
of  August,  430.  Abundant  autobiographical  material  is  contained  in  his 
"Life,"  written  by  Bishop  Possidiusof  Calama  ("Vita  Sancti  .^urelii  Augustini, 
Hipponensis  episcopi  Migne  Pat.  Lat.,"  32  ("Augustine's  Works,"  vol.  I),  1841). 
Good  condensed  lives  are  found  in  Smith  and  Wace's  "Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography,"  I  (1877),  pp.  21O-225,  by  E.  de  Pressensc,  and  in  Professor  F. 
Loofs's  article  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadia;,"  vol.  H  (1S97),  pp.  257- 
285,  English  translation ;  in  the  New  Schaff-Herzog,  vol.  I  (1908),  pp.  365-372. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    237 

religious  genius  the  ethical  development  not  only  of  his  day  but 
even  of  our  own,  with  the  dualistic  despondent  impress  born 
rather  of  pagan  and  oriental  decadence  than  of  Jewish  and 
New  Testament  common-sense. 

The  ethics  of  Augustine  springs  from  his  experience  and  is 
interwoven  with  his  deeply  religious  feeling.  To  understand 
his  ethical  view-point  we  must  take  it  in  connection  with  that 
religious  experience.  His  restless  soul  found  at  last,  after  years 
of  moral  and  intellectual  struggle,  the  peace  that  comes  in  the 
supposed  surrender  to  an  outward  authority.*  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  in  all  that  really  concerned  Augustine  he  led  and  did  not 
slavishly  follow.  Like  Athanasius,  he  would  no  doubt  have 
stood  against  the  world  had  his  vital  faith  been  touched.  But 
having  surrendered  to  the  church,  from  thenceforth  her  sacra- 
ments, her  type  of  piety,  her  authority,  her  imperial  claim  became 
identified  with  the  divine  life  Augustine  had  found  in  her. 
Nowhere  does  the  church  become  more  pronouncedly  a  mediator 
between  God  and  the  soul  than  in  Augustine.  In  the  church  he 
comes  immediately  in  contact  with  God.  In  true  Neoplatonic 
style  the  visible  church  is  only  a  type  of  the  ccelestis  societas,  but 
it  is  this  visible  church  which  can  forgive  sins,^  and  so  his  re- 

Of  his  numerous  works  those  of  most  service  to  the  student  of  ethics  are  "The 
Confessions,"  "De  Civitate  Dei,"  "The  Enchiridion,"  and  the  controversial 
writings  against  the  Donati&ts,  Pelagius,  and  Julian.  Numerous  editions  of 
separate  works  have  appeared,  but  the  best  and  completest  edition  is  still  the 
Mauriner  editio  princeps,  reprinted  by  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  vols.  XXXII-XLVI. 
A  new  edition  in  the  "Corpus  Scriptorum  ecclesiast.  Latinorum,"  Vienna,  has 
been  severely  criticised  by  Adolf  Jiilicher  in  the  "Theologische  Litteratur- 
zeitung,"  1892,  cols.  130-132;  421-425.  This  is  not  complete.  An  English 
translation  of  varying  merit  appeared  in  the  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers," 
second  series,  vols.  I-VII,  New  York,  Scribners,  1886-1888.  The  general 
literature  is  too  great  to  give  in  detail.  Most  useful  the  writer  has  found :  Har- 
nack's  "Dogmengeschichte,"  vol.  Ill  (1890),  pp.  54-215,  English  translation, 
vol.  V  (1899),  pp.  61-240;  Renter,  Hermann:  "  Augustinische  Studien,"  Gotha, 
1887;  and  the  passages  in  the  histories  of  Baur,  Neander,  and  Schaff,  where  an 
enormous  literature  is  noticed.  See  also  the  literature  given  by  Harnack  in  note 
on  pp.  54  and  55  of  "Dogmengeschichte,"  English  translation,  vol.  V  (1899), 
pp.  61-62. 

'  Evangelis  non  crederem,  nisi  me  Catholicas  commovisset  auctoritas. 

-  Per  remissionem  peccatorum  stat  ecclesia,  quae  in  terris  est. 


238  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

ligious  and  ethical  life,  Augustine  felt,  was  staked  upon  the 
sacraments  and  authority  of  the  visible  sacramental  communion. 
This  is  why  his  first  struggle  within  the  church  was  with  the 
Donatists,  whose  general  demand  for  purity  and  reformation  one 
might  suppose  would  have  been  along  the  line  of  Augustine's 
sympathies.  But  Augustine  could  not  brook  anything  that 
imperilled  the  authority  of  the  sacramental  organization,  whose 
world-wide  reach  was  a  chief  argument  for  her  divine  claim. 
In  his  struggle  out  of  and  then  with  the  Manicheans  his  chief 
weapon  had  been  this  authority  of  the  world-wide  church.  It 
alone  had  given  him  rest.  Where  ratio  had  failed  him  auctoritas 
had  come  to  his  aid.  Now  against  the  Donatists  he  had  to 
defend  baptism  in  all  its  magic  sin-forgiving  power.  It  is  almost 
indispensable  to  salvation^  and  is  independent  of  the  moral 
attitude  of  the  baptized  one's  heart.  * '  The  sacrament  of  baptism 
is  one  thing  and  conversion  of  the  heart  another.^ '  This  tre- 
mendous weapon  of  the  church  had  to  be  guarded  against  doubt 
of  its  power,  through  the  personal  weakness  of  the  agent  on  the 
one  hand,  and  yet  to  be  retained  as  the  exclusive  weapon  of  the 
church  on  the  other.  The  ethical  pitfalls  are  many  into  which 
this  desperate  venture  brings  Augustine.  The  external,  magical, 
and  offensively  mechanical  estimate  of  both  baptism  and  for- 
giveness of  sin  runs  a  sword  through  the  very  heart  of  the 
Pauline  doctrine  of  inwardness  and  spiritual  independence. 
And  it  is  sad  indeed  to  find  Augustine  urging  the  persecution  of 
the  Donatists  by  the  civil  authorities.^  Even  when  he  has 
to  confess  that  bishops  and  councils  have  erred,  and  that  later 
councils  can  correct  earlier  ones,*  yet  Scripture  is  absolute, 
and  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  is  in  the  hands  of  the  church. 
Moreover,  the  deadliest  sin  is  schism  from  this  sacramental 
Catholic  church.^  Hence  this  Catholic  church  may  use  vio- 
lence to  force  men  to  the  truth. 

*  "De  Bap.,"  4  :  22  :  29.  ^  "De  Bap.,"  4  :  25  :  33. 

*  "  De  Correctione  Donatistarum,"  Epist.  185.  i  :  S-10. 

*  "De  Bap.,"  2:3:4. 

*  "Dc  Bap.,"  2:6:  9-10. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    239 

It  is  out  of  this  identification  of  his  personal  religious  experi- 
ence with  the  church  that  even  the  details  of  his  ethical  ideals 
are  sprung.  It  is,  of  course,  extreme  and  essentially  unhistoric 
to  speak  of  "a  wild  youth"  and  "bog  of  sensual  excess"  or 
"African  sensuality"  as  the  cornerstones  of  the  Augustinian 
system.  From  the  highest  Christian  point  of  view  Augustine 
gravely  sinned  in  living,  even  in  monogamous  faithfulness,  with 
his  mistress  for  nine  years.  Such  a  relationship  is  demorahzing 
to  both  the  personal  and  social  life.  But  it  is  absurd  to  call  it  a 
bog  of  sensuality.  He  had  a  much-loved  boy  from  the  irregular 
union.  His  mother  never  seems  to  have  had  any  objection  to  it. 
The  church  in  its  formal  canons  made  provision  for  such  unions, 
and  did  not  exclude  the  parties  from  the  communion.^  In  fact 
the  real  sin  was  in  sending  away  his  mistress  after  nine  years  of 
such  happy  united  life,  instead  of  giving  woman  and  boy  such 
recognition  as  civil  marriage  involves.  As  far  as  one  can  judge 
from  the  "Confessions"  and  the  "Life,"  Augustine  was  essen- 
tially a  steady,  well-controlled  normal  man,  whose  sexual  rela- 
tions were  rather  above  than  below  even  the  Christian  average 
of  his  day. 

Not  so,  however,  judged  the  sensitive  and  misinformed  con- 
science of  Augustine  himself.  His  vision  of  God  had  been  in 
connection  with  the  sacramental  church,  and  her  monastic,  essen- 
tially dualistic  valuation  of  the  sexual  relation  became  Augus- 
tine's. He  had,  moreover,  to  intellectually  justify  this  more 
profoundly  than  the  church  herself  had  done.  Hence  he  saw  in 
concupiscentia  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  committed  himself  and 
the  whole  Middle- Age  church  to  what  Julian  of  Eclana  justly 
calls  Manicheism.  Marriage  thus  becomes  for  him  a  con- 
cession to  human  infirmity,  and  brings  with  it  more  than  the 
inconveniences,  of  which  all  the  fathers  speak,  but  an  actual 
defilement  in  original  sin.  In  fact,  the  whole  doctrine  of  original 
sin  in  all  its  artificial  logic  and  false  ethics  is  the  result  of  an 
extension  o-f  the  dualistic,  pessimistic  valuation  of  matter  we 
have  so  often  noticed. 

'  Council  of  Toledo,  canon  17;  Mansi  III,  looi  (A.  D.  400). 


240  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

At  this  point  Augustine  had  to  face  the  consequences  of  his 
teaching  and  to  face  other  ethical  questions  in  his  struggle  with 
Pelagius.  True  Pelagius  was  in  accord  with  him  in  the  general 
monastic  conception  of  the  holy  life,  but  between  monasticism 
and  a  sacramental  grace-dispensing  organization  under  bishops 
there  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  fundamental  difference  in  view- 
point/ In  strict  logic  the  monk  can  earn  his  salvation  without 
sacraments  or  church.  In  fact,  the  hermit  cut  himself  off  from 
both.  In  the  interests  of  the  sacramental  church  Augustine 
denied  the  freedom  of  will  in  even  the  measure  the  monastery 
needed  it.  Thus  he  came  into  conflict  with  Pelagius  and 
Coelestius,  neither  of  whom  were  his  intellectual  equals  and 
both  of  whom  desired  no  break  with  the  church. 

The  crucial  point  with  Augustine  is  sacramental  grace.  By 
that  and  that  alone  we  are  saved.  It  is  a  reformation  misinter- 
pretation of  Augustine  to  omit  "  sacramental."  Augustine  could 
not  think  of  any  grace  apart  from  the  sacraments.  The  sacra- 
mental church  is  ordinarily  the  only  channel  of  grace,  and  that 
sacramental  church  goes  back  to  the  Jewish  church,  to  Abraham, 
to  Noah,  and  even  to  Adam.  But  if  there  is  no  present  freedom 
of  will,  how  are  we  saved  ?  Only  by  the  secret  and  inscrutable 
election  of  God.  This  was  Augustine's  only  answer.  It  leaves, 
however,  the  human  soul  constantly  hanging  between  hope  and 
fear,  and  ever  turning  with  feverish  longing  to  the  sacraments  as 
the  one  channel  of  that  saving  grace. 

This  gloomy  and  essentially  pagan  conception  of  life  was  born 
of  Augustine's  vision  of  sin.  He  had  fiercely  fought  with 
passions  corrupted  by  the  social  organization  in  which  he  dwelt. 
He  saw  sin  everywhere.  "None  is  free  from  sin,  not  even  the 
infant  which  has  lived  but  a  day  upon  the  earth.^  He  wished 
to  avoid  Manicheism  by  denying  that  sin  was  a  "substance,"  ' 

*  Cf.  the  Egyptian  proverb  quoted  by  Cassianus:  "De  Coenobiorum  institutis," 
lib.  XI,  cap.  17;  "Omnimodis  monachum  fugcre  debere  mulieres  et  episcopos." 
MPL,  49,  418. 

'  Confess.,  i  :  7  :  11. 

•  Confess.,  7  :  12  :  18,  and  many  other  passages. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    241 

but  in  fact  he  identifies  it  with  the  body  and  its  natural  impulses 
as  such. 

In  his  psychology  Augustine  swings,  as  does  Aristotle,  between 
will  as  the  seat  of  sin  and  the  reason  which  informs  the  will. 
But  in  fact,  in  common  with  practically  all  Cathohc  writers,  \^ 
opinion,  i.  e.,  the  holding  of  "truth,"  is  the  all-important  thing. 
And  into  his  psychology  enter,  therefore,  foreign  elements.^  At 
the  same  time  sin  is  not  only  an  act  of  the  will  but  a  quality  of 
the  personality.  At  this  point  Pelagius  seems  shallow  and 
unreal  in  comparison  with  Augustine,  who  unquestionably 
deepened  and  enlarged  the  whole  conception  of  sin  as  an  attitude 
of  the  personality  toward  God. 

Yet  even  here  his  dualism  prevented  clear  thinking.  If  sin 
is  thus  an  attitude  of  the  personality,  how  about  the  saved 
personality?  In  the  state  of  sacramental  forgiveness  there 
should  be  no  room  for  sin.  Augustine  was  too  keen  an  ethical 
critic  of  himself  and  the  church  not  to  see  that  there  were  sinners 
in  the  sacramental  organization,  and  sin  in  the  forgiven  life. 
The  only  answer  was  again  the  recurrence  to  a  constant  renewal 
of  sacramental  grace,  and  there  is  given  us  the  foundation  for 
the  weary  struggle  of  the  Middle-Age  church  to  find  ethical  rest 
in  sacramental  forms.  Moreover,  lest  human  superbia  should 
tempt  us,  all  the  merifa  which  may  be  secured  by  the  monastic 
discipline— which  Augustine  did  not  deny  or  dispute— were  but 
the  gift  of  God.^  The  keen  criticism  of  Julian  of  Eclana,^ 
Augustine  could  not  at  this  point  at  all  meet.  Only  when  the 
reformers  attempted  to  get  rid  of  all  meriia  does  the  Augustinian 
system  at  this  point  receive  consistency. 

Indeed,  consistency  is  not  the  strength  of  the  Augustinian 
thinking.     He  was  the  father  of  fides  implicita,*  and  the  baleful 

»  Cf.  Confess.,  lo  :  8-21,  and  Siebeck,  H.:  "Die  Anfiinge  der  neueren  Psy- 
chologic in  der  Scholastik,"  in  "Zeitschrift  fur  Philosophic  und  philosophische 
Kritik,"  vol.  XCIII  (1888),  pp.  161-216. 

=  Confess.,  9  :  13  :  34.     De  Gratia  et  libero  Arbit  lib.  15. 

5  Cf.  admirable  monograph  by  Bruckner,  "Texte  und  Untersuchungen,"  vol. 
XV,  heft  3,  1897. 

*  Cf.  Harnack,  "Dogmengeschichte,"  III  (1897),  p.  75. 


242  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

influence  of  this  one  may  read  in  Ritschl's  history  of  it/  and 
what  has  fides  implicita  to  do  with  logic  and  consistency?  He 
thus  exalted  an  ethical  element  in  the  child's  life  to  a  permanent 
and  unethical  factor  in  the  churchly  development. 

One  of  the  splendid  inconsistencies  in  the  ethics  of  Augustine 
was  the  place  he  gave  to  love.  He  was  "God-drunken,"  and 
the  real  ethical  force  in  his  life  was  his  absorbing,  consuming 
love  of  God.  Not  the  "Confessions"  alone,  but  the  whole 
Augustinian  literature  is  filled  with  this  longing  after  the  source 
of  all  ethical  purity.  Again  and  again  Augustine  sweeps  away, 
seemingly,  the  elaborate  sacramental  apparatus  to  come  into 
immediate  contact  with  the  life  of  God  as  forgiving  grace.  This 
vision  of  God  is  for  him  the  summiim  honum;  and  love  is  the 
power  that  lifts  us  up  into  the  vision.  In  these  places  ^  love  is 
the  new  source  of  a  new  morals. 

The  place  thus  given  to  love  in  the  system  makes  Augustine 
the  father  of  so  much  of  the  mystic  devotionalism  of  both  the 
Middle-Age  church  and  the  mystic  Protestantism  on  into  our 
own  day. 

When  we  carefully  inquire  what  Augustine  means  by  love, 
the  result  is  somewhat  disappointing.  In  his  system  it  could  be, 
and  in  Calvinism  was,  successfully  bound  up  with  an  ethical 
direction  of  the  will.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  distinct  ten- 
dency in  Augustine  is  to  identify  it  with  feeling  almost  to  the 
exclusion  of  will,  with  a  consequent  inevitable  trend  toward 
quietism  and  Neoplatonic  subjectivism. 

With  Augustine  came  again  the  more  or  less  distinct  linking 
of  ethics  with  a  social  purpose  of  redemption.  True,  the  city  of 
God  was  distinctly  in  one  sense  transcendental.  Yet  the  very 
object  of  the  apology  was  to  show  how  Christianity  better  com- 
ports with  and  conserves  the  social  state  than  the  heathen  cults. 
The  hope  of  a  state  subject  to  and  serving  the  church,  which 
Augustine  even  as  a  corpus  admixtum  still  regarded  as  the 

'  Ritschl,   A.:    "Fides   Implicita,   eine   Untersuchung   iiber   Kohlerglauben, 
Wissen  und  Glauben,  Glaubcn  und  Kirchc,"  Bonn,  1S90. 
*  They  are  many.     Cf.  Confessions,  4:9:14. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    243 

kingdom  of  God,  Regnum  Dei,  is  the  vision  that  haunts  him. 
And  how  distinctly  he  looked  to  this  is  seen  in  his  unfortunate 
letter,  de  correctione  Donatistarum, 

Moreover,  in  the  union  of  ethical  v^ith  religious  life  and  the 
distinct  overcoming  of  the  cold  intellectualism  of  a  Stoic  moral-  ^    ^^X 

ity,  he  rendered  unquestionable  service  to  the  social  organism,  -y]^ 
Between  the  poles  of  sin  and  grace,  amidst  the  sweet  pains  of 
forgiven  sin,  Augustine  saw  a  triumphant  sacramental  organiza- 
tion steadily  moving  on,  and  leading  by  word  and  sacrament  the 
nations  into  the  divine  life  and  vision.  Nowhere  is  the  dream 
a  perfect  one.  It  is  shadowed  always  by  the  despondency  of 
oriental  and  Hellenistic  pessimism  so  characteristic  of  African 
piety.     The  force  giving  it  unity  is,  however,  love. 

All  virtues  were  in  it  but  as  the  signs  of  this  one  strong  central 
principle.  The  four  virtues  (Stoic)  were  but  manifestations  of 
love.  Temperantia  is  opposition  to  the  love  of  the  world  from 
love  to  God.  Fortitudo  antagonizes  pain  because  love  strength- 
ens. Justitia  is  love  serving  God.  Prudentia  is  love  choosing 
aright.^  And  all  that  proceeds  not  from  love  (divine)  is  vitia,  or 
at  least  only  relatively  virtuous.^  Within  this  kingdom  we  may 
use  the  world,  although  we  ought  alone  to  enjoy  God.^ 

Now  through  the  continuance  of  sacramental  grace  a  great 
throng,  chosen  in  God's  free  love  and  mercy,  was  being  fitted  to 
take  the  place  of  the  fallen  angels  and  dwell  in  continual  enjoy- 
ment of  the  beatific  vision.  In  many  passages  modern  religious 
sense  is  offended  by  the  almost  selfish  emphasis  upon  this 
enjoyment,  but  on  the  other  hand  in  the  last  analysis  redemption 
for  Augustine  is  freedom  to  live  the  divine  life,  and  that  life  is 
loving  holiness  and  the  fulfilment  of  God's  commandments. 

The  theological  historian  is,  no  doubt,  constantly  tempted  to 
gravely  overestimate  the  importance  of  formulated  doctrine: 

'  "De  Moribus  Ecclesiac  Catholicse,"  i  :  15  :  25. 

'De  Civ.  Dei.,  5  :  12-19. 

'  Utendum  est  hoc  mundo,  non  fruendum;  ut  invisibilia  Dei,  per  ea  quae 
facta  sunt,  intellecta  conspiciantur.  "De  Doctrina  Christiana,"  I,  5,  Migne 
"Pat.  Lat.,"  vol.  XXXIV,  col.  21  a. 


244  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

even  the  non-theological  Carlyle  attaches  too  much  importance 
to  the  Arian  controversy.  Had  Arius  even  triumphed  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  the  church  could  have  more  crassly  plunged 
into  the  worship  of  three  gods  with  a  throng  of  intermediate  demi- 
gods (saints),  angels,  and  demons  than  it  did.  The  popular 
faith  is  the  product  of  personality  and  social  conditions,  and  the 
final  dogmatic  formulation  is  the  work  of  a  select  few  for  a 
select  circle. 

So  it  is  easy  to  grossly  overestimate  the  influence  of  the 
Pelagian  struggle  upon  even  the  history  of  the  church.  In  point 
of  fact  the  church  never  followed  in  her  living  faith  either 
Pelagius  or  Augustine.  She  went  on  her  way  teaching  freedom 
to  do  good  works,  the  value  of  penance  to  wipe  out  sin  and  gain 
salvation,  the  beauty  of  co-operating  grace;  while  she  vigorously 
upheld  Augustine — as  far  as  she  understood  him. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  things  the  Council  of  Africa  in 
418  condemned,  (i)  That  those  holding  that  natural  death 
was  independent  of  sin  were  to  be  cursed.  (2)  Those  denying 
sin  and  guilt  on  the  part  of  infants  were  to  be  cursed.  (3) 
Those  holding  that  unbaptized  infants  would  have  any  sort  of 
blessedness  were  to  be  cursed.  (4)  Those  who  refer  the  justi- 
fying grace  of  Christ  only  to  past  sins  are  to  be  cursed.  (5) 
Those  who  see  in  grace  enlightenment  only  and  no  power  to 
resist  are  to  be  cursed.  (6)  Those  who  do  not  see  in  grace  an 
absolutely  necessary  power  to  well-doing  are  to  be  cursed.  (7) 
Those  who  saw  in  confession  only  an  expression  of  humility 
(and  not  sacramental  efficiency)  were  to  be  cursed.'  And  this 
was  the  gist  of  Augustinianism  as  the  church  understood  it! 

The  fact  was  that  for  the  Greek  church  the  freedom  of  the  will 
was  never  seriously  in  dispute.  Profound  as  was  the  influence 
of  Augustine  upon  the  Middle  Ages,  it  was  upon  its  piety  rather 
than  upon  its  dogma.  And  it  is  capable  of  demonstration  that 
the  freer,  more  human,  more  rationalistic,  and  more  compre- 
hensible view  of  the  world  taught  by  Pelagius,  Coclestius,  and 
Julian  of  Eclana  never  lost  its  influence  upon  large  numbers 

'  C/.  Harnack:   "Dogmengeschichtc,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  172,  note,  edition  1897. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    245 

of  minds,  although  without  doubt  the  system  never  had  behind 
it  so  representative  and  overwhelming  a  personality  as  that  of 
Augustine,  whose  very  weaknesses  (his  entire  acceptance  of 
popular  Catholicism)  made  him  acceptable  to  the  half-paganized 
church. 

The  actual  piety  and  ethics  of  the  period  are,  probably,  far 
better  represented  in  the  pages  of  Johannes  Cassianus}  His 
"Institutes"  and  "Conferences"  are  of  especial  interest,  not 
because  he  consciously  set  about  the  ethical  reformation  of  the 
church,  but  because  he  proclaims  the  ideals  that  seemed  to  him 
the  highest,  and  which  represent  the  monastic  morality,  which 
was  to  be  supreme  in  all  its  weakness  and  all  its  power  for  a 
thousand  years.  The  setting  is  called  "semi-Pelagian"  on  the 
basis  of  Collatio  XIII  of  Abbot  Chaevemon.  But  in  point  of 
fact  this  represents  the  simple  uncritical  religious  belief  of  ninety- 
nine  of  one  hundred  Christians  in  all  the  centuries. 

And  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  call  an  opinion  his  own  was 
Johannes  Cassianius.  He  would  have  subscribed  with  all  his 
heart  to  the  quod  ubique,  quod  semper,  quod  ah  omnibus  of 
Vincentius  of  Lerins.^  Nor  can  it  be  disputed  successfully  that 
the  system  of  Augustine  was  in  reality  as  far  away  from  any  body 
of  doctrine  thus  described  as  was  that  of  Pelagius. 

The  picture  of  the  ethical  ideals  of  the  Catholic  church  is  full 
of  the  most  significant  contrasts.    To  dwell  upon  either  side  of 

1  Johannes  Cassianus,  born  about  the  year  360,  Gennadius  says  in  Scythia 
(Catalogus  62),  but  perhaps  confused  by  the  Egyptian  Scetis,  Scete,  or  Scyathis, 
where  he  spent  much  time.  He  died  during  the  reign  of  Theodosius  and  of 
Valentinian.  His  chief  works  are  his  "De  coenobiorum  institutis  libri  duo- 
decim,"  the  twenty-four  " Collationes,"  and  the  seven  books,  "De  incarnatione 
Christi,"  against  Nestorius.  The  best  edition  is  the  Vienna  edition  by  Pet- 
schenig,  in  "Corpus  Scriptorum  Ecclesiasticorum  Latinorum,"  vol.  XHI,  parts 
I  and  2,  in  two  volumes.  In  Migne,  "  Patrologia  Latina,"  tomi  duae,  49  et  50. 
Translation  in  the  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  XI, 
1894,  pp.  161-621.  See  also  for  literature  articles  in  "Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography"  (Smith  and  Wace)  and  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  III, 
1897,  pp.  746-749,  by  Griitzmacher,  English  translation,  II,  1908,  pp.  435-436- 
Although  less  critical,  we  have  used  Migne  for  the  sake  of  the  most  instructive 
commentary  by  Alardus  Gazeeus. 

*  "Commonitorius,"  II  :  6. 


246  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

the  picture,  to  think  only  of  the  shadows,  or  see  nothing  but  the 
high  lights  is  equally  to  resolve  history  into  an  inexplicable 
mystery.  The  shadows  are  very  deep.  Nothing  could  be  more 
revolting  than  the  picture  of  a  tortured  and  neglected  child, 
purposely  beaten  and  starved  to  test  the  father's  renunciation, 
until  at  last  he  is  told  to  throw  the  boy  into  the  river,  and  proves 
his  "holiness"  by  doing  so,  when  the  wretched  boy  is  rescued 
by  the  monks.^ 

And  truly  pathetic  are  some  of  the  cases  of  artificial  piety 
with  its  sad  issue  in  insanity,  as  where  the  old  man  Heron 
flings  himself  into  a  well  in  obedience  to  a  "  vision"  which,  as  he 
dies  from  the  effects,  is  attributed  to  a  devil,  and  with  difficulty 
does  he  escape  a  suicide's  disgraceful  burial.^  Nor  can  one  be 
surprised  at  the  low  average  intelligence  indicated  by  the  story 
of  the  anthropomorphic  struggle.  The  monks,  namely,  were 
firmly  of  the  opinion  that  God  had  hands  and  feet,  and  when 
the  spiritual  character  of  God  was  proclaimed,  poor  old  Serapion 
(in  actuali  disciplina  per  omnia  consumatus)  was  overwhelmed 
by  the  proof  that  the  Catholic  church  taught  it.  But  it  left 
him  desolate.  "  They  have  taken  away  my  God,"  he  exclaimed.' 
He  had  no  one  to  adore  or  address!  Of  course,  in  common 
with  even  the  cultivated  men  of  the  age  the  popular  piety  was 
childishly  credulous.  Miracles  abound,^  and  it  is  hard  to  acquit 
such  an  one  as  Sulpitio  Severus  of  deliberate  pious  lying.' 
Moreover,  the  worship  and  life  have  become  formal,  rigid,  and 
complicated  to  an  extraordinary  degree,*  and  the  ethics  begins 
increasingly  to  harden  into  a  casuistry  with  grades  of  merit, 
and  classified  in  two  divisions  of  venial  and  deadly  sins.''    More- 

'  "De  Coenob.  Instit.,"  4  :  27.  "  "Collatio,"  II  :  5. 

'  Hcu  me  miserum!  tulerunt  a  me  Deum  raeum,  et  quern  nunc  teneam  non 
habeo,  vel  quem  adorem  aut  interpellem  jam  nesciol  "Collatio.,"  X  :  3. 
(MPL,  49,  824  B.) 

*  Cf.  "Collatio,"  XV  :  3-5.  «  Cf.  Vita  S.  Martinii. 

•"De  Coenob.  Instit.,"  lib.  I  et  II. 

'  "Nam  .  .  .  nunc  arripere  colluctationem  adversus  octo  principalia  vitia 
vestris  orationibus,  Domino  confortante,  disponimus,  id  est,  primum  gastri- 
margiae,  quae  intcrprctatur  gula;  concupiscentia;  secundum  fornicationis; 
tertium  philargyriae,  quod  intelligitur  avaritia,  vel  ut  propius  exprimatur,  amor 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    247 

over,  as  always  happens  when  ethics  becomes  legal,  the  art  of 
escape  from  impossible  positions  develops  a  defence  of  deceit 
and  untruthfulness  born  of  conscientious  scruples.  Very  in- 
structive is  the  discussion  ^  as  to  whether  solemnly  given  promises 
and  vows  may  not  be  broken  in  the  interests  of  the  higher  spiritual 
welfare.  And  Abbot  Joseph  proves  from  Scripture  that  lying 
and  deceit  are  often  the  lesser  evils,  and  therefore  to  be  chosen. 
Indeed  this  whole  discussion  is  a  fitting  prelude  to  the  casuistry 
which  has  brought  Jesuitism  into  such  bad  repute.^ 

Dreadfully  prominent  in  the  ethical  ideals  of  this  age  is  the 
separation  between  "good  works"  and  social  purpose.  Obedi- 
ence of  the  most  slavish  kind  is  exalted  as  a  virtue  per  se.  A 
monk  waters  a  stick  for  years  at  the  behest  of  his  superior 
merely  to  test  his  obedience,^  and  hard  work  at  useless  tasks  is 
constantly  praised.  This  unnatural  separation  of  virtue  from 
its  social  meaning  results  in  actual  brutality.  A  monk  is  praised 
for  burning  loving  letters  from  home  unread,  lest  they  distract 
him  from  his  prayers.^  A  brother  refuses  the  simplest  act  of 
assistance  to  his  brother  on  the  basis  of  his  "being  dead"  to  the 
world.^  A  husband  deserts  a  loving  wife,  to  "save  his  soul,"  ^ 
and  although  it  is  evident  that  Cassianus  is  not  quite  sure  of  his 
ground,  yet  he  praises  the  husband's  conduct,  while  making  a 
half-hearted  excuse  for  marriage.  The  ideal  is  a  false  suppres- 
sion of  natural  and  legitimate  human  desires,  and  results,  of 
course,  in  all  kinds  of  questionable  conduct.  Above  all,  the 
gratia  castitatis  is,  of  course,  most  especially  praised,  and  most 
questionable  means  of  testing  and  proving  it  are  suggested.' 

pecunise;  quartum  irae,  quintum  tristitiae;  sextum  acediae  (dxrySia),  quod  est 
anxietas,  sive  tsedium  cordis;  septimum  cenodoxise,  quod  sonat  vana  seu  inanis, 
gloria;  octavum  superbise,"  "De  Ccenobiorum  Instit.,"  V,  i.  (MPL,  XklX 
202  D,  203  A.) 

i"Collatio,"  XVII  :i-20. 

^  Cf.  Newman's  "Apologia  pro  Vita  sua,"  edition  1885,  notes  F  and  G. 

'  "De  Coenob.  Instit.,"  lib.  IV  :  24. 

*  "De  Coenob.  Instit.,"  lib.  V  :  32. 

«  "  Collatio,"  XXIV  :  9.  *  "  CoUatio,"  XXI  :  9-10. 

"  Most  sadly  suggestive  are  the  notes  given  in  the  Commentary  of  Alardus 
Gazseus  to  "Collatio,"  XIX,  caput  16,  note  b,  Migne,  torn.  49,  col.  1146. 


248  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  anchorite  is  placed  as  a  matter  of  necessary  logic  higher 
than  the  monk  in  the  cenobium/  but  this  course  of  his  has 
given  the  palm  to  the  milder  compromise.  It  is  pathetic  in  the 
extreme  to  read  the  careful  and  most  interesting  psychological 
analyses  of  the  mental  states  produced  by  the  unnatural  life  of 
the  monk.  "The  sixth  struggle  is  what  the  Greeks  call  uKrjSia, 
which  we  may  render  weariness  and  anxiety  of  heart.^  It  is 
like  melancholia,  and  is  particularly  severe  with  the  hermit 
and  a  constant  and  dangerous  foe  of  the  solitary,  attacking  the 
monk  at  the  sixth  hour,  as  does  a  fever  with  its  burning  heat 
the  sick  man,  at  regular  intervals  .  .  .  and  when  it  seizes 
some  miserable  one,  he  conceives  a  horror  of  the  place,  an  utter 
disgust  of  his  cell;  of  his  brethren  also  with  him  or  near  him  it 
begets  disdain  and  contempt,  as  negligent  and  unspiritual." '  The 
whole  description  is  saddening  in  the  extreme.  The  unnatural 
strain  producing  all  manner  of  mental  disorders,  and  giving  rise 
to  visions,  dreams,  and  fantastic  modes  of  life  which  were  then 
variously  interpreted  as  either  the  visitation  of  angels  or  the 
attacks  of  demons. 

The  gracia  castitatis  giving  rise  to  the  natural  pathological 
consequences^  and  coloring  the  whole  ecclesiastical  ethical  devel- 
opment in  a  most  unhappy  way.^ 

At  the  same  time,  dark  as  are  the  shadows,  the  picture  as  a 
whole  gives  promise  of  better  things.  The  conception  of  work, 
and  that  in  the  main  useful  work,  as  the  chief  remedy  for  the 
languor,  pride,  melancholia,  and  "accedia"  is  strongly  insisted 
upon,  not  only  by  Cassianus,  but  by  the  whole  literature  of 

*  Preface  to  the  "Collationes." 

'  Taedium  sive  anxietatem  cordis. 

'  "Do  Coenob.  Instit.,"  lib.  X  :  r  and  2. 

*C/."De  Coenobiorum  Instit.,"  XII  :  20,  "Novi  quemdam  do  fratrum  nu- 
mero,  .  .  .  qui  probatissimo  cuidam  senum  vitio  carnis  semetipsum  gravissimo 
confessus  est  impugnari;  nam  contra  usum  natura;  desiderio  patiendi  magis 
quam  inferendi  ignominiam  intolcrabili  aistu  libidinis  urebatur."  The  unhappy 
brother  was  accused  of  blasphemy  and  thus  the  disorder  was  traced  directly  to 
the  devil.  (MPL,  49,  457  B.)  Cf.  CrafTt-Ebing  Psyrhopathia  Se.xualis,  1894 
(9th  ed.),  pp.  89-150. 

*  C/.  Harnack:  "Dogmengcschichtc,"  vol.  Ill  (1S97),  note  i,  p.  204. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    249 

Western  monasticism  at  its  best.  In  spite  of  theory  and  logic, 
the  social  monastery  supplanted  the  loosely  attached  hermit 
gatherings,  and  almost  entirely  displaced  the  anchorite.  The 
keen  psychological  analysis  that  marks  both  the  "Institutiones" 
and  the  "  Collationes"  ^  is  superior  to  anything  the  writer  knows 
in  classic  literature,  and  reflects  the  process  by  which  the  in- 
wardness and  immediacy  of  the  sense  of  sin  came  to  its  own  in 
human  thinking. 

Amidst  all  the  unnatural  perversions  of  the  monastic  ideals, 
common-sense  comes  often  to  its  rights.  The  familiar  story  of 
John,  who  defends  his  playing  with  his  tame  partridge  on  the 
ground  that  the  bow  must  not  always  be  bent,  reveals  the  human 
side.^ 

In  the  ethical  ideals  we  see  the  almost  extreme  emphasis  upon 
the  inner  life  as  the  determining  element  in  conduct.  Angry 
acts  may  be  wholly  avoided  and  the  soul  be  in  mortal  sin  because 
of  angry  thoughts.^  All  hate  and  passion  must  be  banished, 
and  love  must  hold  absolute  sway  as  the  source  of  all  goodness.^ 
Moreover,  this  love  is  independent  of  either  the  fear  of  hell  or 
the  longing  for  heaven,'^  and  becomes  the  strong  barrier  against 
all  sin. 

In  spite  of  the  dualistic  remains  in  theory,  at  least,  the  Mani- 
chean  estimate  of  body  is  overcome  and  the  substantive  character 
of  sin  is  denied.  As  with  Augustine,  so  in  Cassianus  and  in  the 
popular  ethical  estimate,  sin  is  negative  and  not  created  by  God, 
but  only  permitted. 

The  character  of  God  is,  of  course,  drawn  far  too  much  as 
Judge  and  Law-giver  and  too  little  as  loving  and  forgiving  Father. 
Yet  this  description  is  never  wholly  lacking,  and  such  a  passage 
as  "Collatio,"  III  :  7,  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  in  the  way 
of  evangelical  fervor.     God  is  longing  for  the  salvation  of  the 

*  Cf.  such  passages  as  "De  Coenob.  Instit.,"  XII  :  27,  29,  30. 

2"Collatio,"  XXIV  :2i. 

'  "De  Coenob.  Instit.,"  lib.  VIII  :  20.  *  "Collatio,"  XI  :  9-13. 

^"Collatio,"  XI  :  8,  "Et  est  quidem  in  illis  gradus  cujusdam  profectus  im- 
buens  nos,  ut  dum  vel  poenarum  metu,  vel  pra;miorum  spe  incipimus  vitia  de- 
clinare,  ad  charitatis  gradum  transire  possimus."     (MPL,  49,  854  c.) 


L^ 


250  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

sinner,  and  all  the  most  familiar  passages  of  loving  grace  and 
forgiveness  are  beautifully  grouped  together.  The  practical  con- 
sequences of  Augustinianism  are  avoided,  even  if  the  resulting 
synergism  is  philosophically  as  unsatisfactory  as  a  similar  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  Melanchthon.*  ' 

On  the  religious  and  ethical  side,  moreover,  all  the  really  im- 
portant elements  are  carefully  guarded.  Fasting  has  no  merit 
in  itself,  but  is  only  a  means  to  an  end,  and  merit  cannot  be 
acquired  as  over  against  God.^  Man  is  responsible,  but  all 
good  things  come  from  God,  including  the  gift  of  penitence, 
which  must  be  from  the  heart,  and  is  faithfully  and  even  beauti- 
fully described.^  Language  is,  of  course,  used  whose  import  is 
very  different.  The  vulgar  conception,  however,  of  work-right- 
eousness is  constantly  disowned,  and  God's  free  grace  constantly 
proclaimed.  Here,  however,  as  elsewhere,  two  completely  differ- 
ent views  are  brought  together  in  no  vital  union  either  philoso- 
phically or  religiously.  And  the  component  parts  of  the  Catholic 
synthesis  often  creak  against  each  other  in  great  disjointment. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  instructive  comparisons  between 
classic  paganism  and  the  Christian-catholic  synthesis  is  furnished 
by  Cassianus's  treatise  on  friendship  as  compared  with  Cicero's 
"De  Amicitia."  Everything  that  Cicero  has  Cassianus  almost 
entirely  lacks.  Form,  wit,  grace,  beauty  of  expression,  and 
gentle  dalliance  with  feeling,  all  are  missing.  But  Cassianus 
has,  beneath  all  the  conventional  devotionalism,  that  of  which 
Cicero  had  no  conception,  namely,  the  union  of  souls  in  the 
eternal  purpose  of  redeemed  life.  Even  the  Protestant  critic, 
utterly  out  of  accord  with  all  the  sacramentarian  and,  from  his 
point  of  view,  pagan  monasticism,  must  feel  the  warm,  solemn 
earnestness  of  the  religious  life  that  pulses  through  the  "  friend- 
ship" of  Cassianus,  but  which  is  utterly  lacking  in  Cicero. 

We  have  dwelt  on  Cassianus  just  because,  while  he  is  not 
original,  nor  yet  a  leader,  nor  even  a  new  formulator  of  the 
thought  of  his  day,  he  does  so  abundantly,  clearly,  and  deliber- 

»C/.  "Collatio,"  XIII  :  i8. 

'  "Collatio,"  XXI  :  14.  '  "Collatio,"  XX  :  1-12. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    251 

ately  reflect  what  the  great,  nay,  overwhelming,  mass  of  the 
Christian  church  officially  thought  about  God,  conduct,  and  the 
world.  In  him  we  see  how  the  ethical  ideal  has  a  synthesis,  into 
which  elements  from  Judaism,  Neo-platonism,  Aristotehanism, 
Roman  Stoicism,  African  paganism,  Persian  dualism,  Egyptian 
and  oriental  mystery-worship  all  entered;  but  that  the  strength 
and  unity  of  this  synthesis  was  the  imperial  hope  of  a  kingdom 
of  righteousness,  and  the  real  inwardness  and  glow  came  still 
from  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  even  though  that  life  was  only 
known  in  interpretations  of  it  that  varied  in  character  and  power 
from  Paul  to  the  superstitious  anchorite  of  the  Egyptian  desert. 
We  must  begin  to  seriously  regard  Christianity,  as  we  know  it, 
as  the  greatest  and  most  successful  of  the  great  syncretistic 
religious  movements  in  human  history,  and  freely  recognize  the 
fact  that  we  are  debtors  to  the  Greek  and  the  Roman,  to  the 
bond  and  the  free,  and  equally  seriously  begin  to  segregate  the 
weak  and  beggarly  elements,  whatsoever  may  be  their  source, 
and  to  strengthen  those  things  that  remain  as  the  gift  of  God 
from  whatever  quarter  he  sends  them.  The  tests  being  the 
appropriate  tests  for  the  discovery  of  truth;  and  on  the  ethical 
field  the  final  test  being  fitness  for  the  promotion  of  individual 
and  social  righteousness  in  the  divine-human  fellowship  of  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

VII.      THE   ETHICS   OF  THE   COUNCILS 

The  division  between  the  East  and  West  was  long  postponed. 
The  intense  feeling  that  organic  unity  furnished  a  guarantee  for 
the  truth  handed  down,  as  well  as  political  considerations, 
made  both  the  great  wings  of  the  church  careful  about  division. 
Yet  the  two  churches  had  most  distinctly  different  aims  and 
methods.  The  real  intellectual  leadership  long  remained  with 
the  East.  The  pohtical  leadership  was  almost  as  undisputed  by  a 
possession  of  the  West.  The  councils  that  settled  the  great 
dogmatic  questions  were  all  under  Eastern  influence,  but  were 
then  accepted  by  Rome  as  the  authentic  formulators  of  her 


252  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

teachings.  Not,  indeed,  that  Rome's  interest  was  ever  primarily 
dogmatic  or  theological.  Indeed,  it  is  quite  evident  that  in  many 
cases  Rome  had  no  very  intelligent  interest  in  many  of  the 
questions  at  issue.  Even  when  such  a  bishop  as  Leo  inter- 
posed to  lead  a  dispute,  it  is  easy  to  see  in  that  leadership  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  political  over  the  abstract  intellectual  interest. 

With  the  dogmatic  development  of  the  councils  we  have 
nothing  to  do,  but  the  infallible  authority  of  the  council  was  not 
confined  to  dogma,  but  covered  also  matters  of  discipline;  and 
the  development  of  canon  law  was,  according  to  the  faith  of  the 
early  church,  a  divinely  inspired  development.  That  is  to  say 
the  authority  was  based  on  the  divine  leadership  supposed  to  be 
assured  to  the  bishops  in  council,  and  therefore  different  in 
character  from  the  ordinary  results  of  human  intelligence,  so  that 
when  the  ecumenical  council  spoke,  it  spoke  with  inspired 
wisdom. 

Interesting  as  are  the  canons  of  the  councils,^  both  to  the  stu- 
dent of  the  historical  development  and  the  social  investigator, 
the  dogmatic  interest  is  so  overwhelming  that  the  student  of 
ethics  comes  away  from  the  study  disappointed.  We  have 
already  glanced  at  the  canons  of  Bishop  Basil  (pp.  209,  210), 
and  in  them  is  reflected  the  same  organization  interest  which 
appears  throughout. 

A  few  characteristic  touches,  however,  may  be  noticed  in 
passing.     In  the  ecumenical  synod  of  Nice  all  interest  is  for- 

>  The  classic  work  is  Hefele,  "  Conciliengeschichte,"  1890  (English  translation 
by  Wm.  R.  Clark,  "History  of  the  Christian  Councils,"  1S71,  seq.),  where 
abundant  bibliographical  material  is  given.  See  also  Schafl's  "  Creeds  of  Chris- 
tendom," three  vols.,  1877.  We  have  also  thankfully  used  Bishop  Beveridge's 
"  2i;v65tKo»',  sive  Pandecta;  Canonum  S.  S.  Apostolorum,  et  Conciliorum  ab  Ec- 
clesia  Gra;ca  receptorum,"  tomi  I  et  II,  1672  (Greek  and  Latin).  One  or  two 
of  our  references  are  also  to  Mansi's  "Concilia,"  1759,  simply  because  at  hand. 
The  translation  of  the  canons  and  decrees  by  Dr.  Henry  R.  Percival  and  his  co- 
workers IS  well  done  ("The  Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  second  scries, 
vol.  XIV:  "The  Seven  Ecumenical  Councils,"  1900),  but  the  notes  and  omis- 
sions betray  the  unconscious  bias  of  one  who  can  say:  "  I  accept  all  the  doctrinal 
decrees  of  the  Seven  Ecumenical  Synods  as  infallible  and  irrcformable,"  p.  ix 
of  Preface. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    253 

bidden  on  money  loaned  by  the  clergy.*  Increasingly  the  canons 
restrict  the  prophetic  freedom.  As  soon  as  the  church  could 
she  forbade  free  religious  assembly,^  and  appealed,  alas,  to  the 
civil  authority  to  suppress  those  "meetings  for  private  worship" 
which  had  been  her  own  life  so  long! 

At  the  same  council  access  to  the  emperor  is  reserved  for  the 
higher  ecclesiastics,^  and  wandering  teachers  are  hindered  from 
proclaiming  their  message.  According  to  canon  VI  of  Laodicea 
heretics  were  not  permitted  to  enter  the  house  of  God  while  in 
heresy,  and  the  same  council  decreed  that  "no  one  shall  join 
with  heretics  or  schismatics  in  prayers."  * 

In  Chalcedon  the  monastery  is  finally  subjected  to  the  bishop;' 
and  secret  societies  and  conspiracy  are  forbidden^  as  dangerous, 
no  doubt,  to  episcopal  authority. 

There  are  some  interesting  glimpses  at  the  ethical  level 
afforded  by  the  canons.  "Those  who  forcibly  carry  away 
women  under  pretext  of  marriage,  and  the  abettors  of  such 
ravishers,  ij  they  be  clergymen,  shall  be  degraded."  '  Simony 
has  constantly  to  be  enacted  against,  and  covetousness,  secular 
occupation,  and  absorption  in  money-getting  are  constantly 
rebuked.  Some  superstitions  are  also  denounced;  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  giving  of  the  sacraments  to  the  dead  ^  and  the  wearing 
of  amulets."  The  playing  with  dice,  the  attendance  upon  hunts, 
theatric  performances,  theatric  dances  are  forbidden  to  clerics,*" 
who  are  also  ordered  to  wear  clerical  dress."  One  curious 
provision  forbids  the  taking  of  the  testimony  of  "slaves,  freed- 
men,  actors,  heretics,  heathen  or  Jews."  *^ 

'  I  Nice,  Canon  XVII;  see  also  Laodicea,  Canon  IV,  and  cf.  also  African 
Codex,  Canon  V. 

2  Antioch,  Canons  II  and  V,  and  Gangra,  VI. 

3  Antioch,  XI.  *  Canon  XXXIII. 
s  Canon  IV. 

«  Canon  XXXIV.     Cf.  Chalcedon,  Canon  XVIII. 

^  Chalcedon,  Canon  XXVII.     Cf.  also  Trullan  92. 

8  African  Code,  Canon  XVIII;  cf.  I  Cor.  15  :  29. 

»  Laodicea,  Canon  XXXVI. 

">  Trullan  L  and  LI.  "  Trullan  XXVII. 

'2  African  Code,  Canon  CXXIX. 


254  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

What  strikes  the  student  of  ethics  is  the  steady  supplanting  of 
the  ethical  interest  by  the  dogmatic  and  organization  points  of 
view,  and  the  steady  separation  of  the  clergy  into  a  caste  in  which 
the  celibate  requirements  play  a  most  prominent  and  unfortu- 
nate part. 

The  development  of  the  ecclesiastical  mind  and  temper  is 
plainly  marked,  and  the  unfortunate  relations  between  the 
empire  and  the  church,  however  great  may  have  been  the  bene- 
fits, were  constantly  tending  to  make  the  ethics  into  a  corpus 
juris,  and  to  harden  the  whole  treatment  of  ethics  into  a  rather 
bloodless  casuistry,  with  all  the  attendant  unethical  conse- 
quences. 

The  conciliar  utterances  are  not  engaged  in  stemming  the  tide 
of  pagan  intrusion  which  steadily  flows  into  the  stream  of  the 
ecclesiastical  development. 

It  is  one  of  the  vivid  illustrations  of  the  uselessness  of  external 
infallible  authority  that  not  even  the  reverence  for  the  letter 
of  Scripture  could  stop  the  crassest  idolatry  and  most  vulgar 
witchcraft  being  foisted  on  the  church  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
'and  his  disciples.  In  point  of  fact  the  doctrinal  and  ethical 
I  development  was  quite  as  dependent  upon  heathen  philosophy 
as  upon  the  New  Testament  for  the  form  and  method  of  its 
growth,  and  with  the  philosophy  entered  the  pagan  superstitions 
from  which  the  philosophy  had  never  wholly  freed  itself.^  For 
the  learned  even  these  things  were  dangerous  (Augustine  and 
his  doctrine  of  demons),  for  the  ignorant  they  were  fatal.  It 
resulted  in  the  maintenance  under  other  names  of  popular  pagan 
superstitions  without  number. 

We  have  seen  how  the  mystery  cult  and  the  sacrament  soon 
coalesced,  and  in  the  rites  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  as 
by  open  doors,  there  entered  the  whole  cycle  of  pagan  magic 
conceptions,  utterly  undermining  in  the  vulgar  mind  the  ethical 
values  of  the  simple  symbolism.  It  was,  no  doubt,  through  this 
door  that  the  cult  of  the  dead  (Egypt)  also  made  its  easy  way. 
No  doctrine  came  with  greater  force  to  a  perishing  social  organ- 

'  Platu  and  the  symbolic  explanations  of  the  myths. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    255 

ization  than  Paul's  proclamation  of  the  resurrection-life.  It 
was  identified  almost  at  once  with  purification  by  baptism,  so 
that  the  baptized  were  "buried  with  Christ"  and  rose  to  a  new 
life. 

Soon  also  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  with  its  mystic 
interpretation  (Johannine  Logos  theology)  was  the  partaking  of 
the  divine  life  and  the  entrance  from  death  into  life.  The 
saint  and  martyr  were  soon  accorded  special  honor  as  hav- 
ing completed  the  work  begun  in  sacramental  mystery,  and 
their  relics  were  soon  "reverenced,"  ^  and  by  the  vulgar  soon 
worshipped.^  It  is  quite  vain  to  emphasize  this  distinction  as 
important.  No  really  intelligent  pagan  ever  thought  the  statue 
made  by  hands  really  divine,  but  regarded  it  as  a  "  help  to  devo- 
tion." The  struggle  over  the  worship  of  pictures  was,  however, 
in  vain.  The  iconoclasts  were  wellnigh  as  superstitious  as  the 
picture-worshippers.  Their  arguments  are  based  upon  the 
essential  wrong  of  any  attempt  at  the  portrayal  of  Christ  because 
it  implicitly  denies  his  divinity,  and  the  mother  of  God  was  not 
to  be  painted  because  painting  was  a  heathenish  art.' 

Indeed  the  iconoclastic  agitation  came  from  without.  Per- 
haps the  Mahometan  movement,  with  its  military  pictureless 
fanaticism,  was  the  moving  factor  in  the  mind  of  the  iconoclastic 
emperors  and  army. 

Whether  Vigilantius  really  represented  an  intelligent  rejection 
of  saint-worship  and  eco«-superstition  we  do  not  know.  We 
have  only  the  intemperate  and  scurrilous  abuse  of  Jerome  as  the 
source  of  our  information.  Canon  Gilly's  interesting  book* 
leaves  us  still  guessing  and  very  much  in  the  dark.  One  thing 
is  certain,  the  council  of  Nicaea  (787)  settled  the  question  for 
both  East  and  West,  and  settled  it  wrongly.  For  however  the 
educated  may  guard  against  the  puerile  materialism  represented 
in  the  image-cult,  all  historical  experience  has  shown  that  the 
ignorant  cannot  be  guarded  against  it,  and  that  it  debases  wor- 
ship swiftly  and  surely. 

*  irpoffKvveiv.  *  \arpeiv.  '  "  ConciHabuIum,  Constantinople,"  754. 

*"  Vigilantius  and  His  Times,"  1844. 


256  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

As  a  matter  of  fact  it  simply  opened  the  door  to  the  worship  of 
the  heathen  gods,  which  had  probably  never  really  ceased  under 
other  names.  Mary  becomes  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  and  the 
saints  and  apostles  take  the  places  of  favorite  demi-gods  and 
pagan  heroes.  Their  relics  are  worshipped,  and  a  canon  orders 
all  churches  to  be  supplied  with  them.^ 

In  fact  a  crude  Gnosticism  prevailed,  in  which  access  to  the 
highest  divinity  was  only  to  be  obtained  by  the  intervention  of 
intermediate  demi-gods.  Mary  became  toward  the  close  of  this 
period  the  influential  intermediary  between  God  and  man,  so 
that  Nestorius  protests  against  making  her  a  goddess.  She 
becomes  the  Bride  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Mother  of  God 
(Athanasius),  and  to  this  day  is  the  centre  of  a  superstitious 
cycle  of  legends  borrowed  from  pagan  antiquity. 

This  period  is  constantly  haunted  by  fears  of  Judaism.  One 
of  the  canons  of  Laodicea '  forbids  Christians  to  Judaize  by 
"resting  on  the  Sabbath  day.  They  must  work  on  that  day, 
rather  seeking  to  honor  the  Lord's  day,  and  i}  they  can  by  resting 
on  that  day."  But  in  spite  of  this  fear,  through  Judaism  also 
came  pouring  in  a  flood  of  superstitions  and  ritual  formahties. 
The  Judaism  of  Christ's  time  had  become  dreadfully  corrupt. 
Angel  and  devil  worship,  probably  of  Babylonian-Persian  origin, 
had  left  many  traces  upon  it. 

Even  the  canonical  Scriptures,  though  so  generally  representing 
the  purifying  processes  introduced  by  propheticism  in  the  eighth 
and  seventh  centuries,  nevertheless  contained  many  memories  of 
the  more  primitive  paganism  out  of  which  Judaism  had  so 
slowly  emerged.  Upon  these  remnants  of  heathenism  the  atten- 
tion of  the  church  was  all  too  often  fixed.  It  was  a  great  gain 
in  many  respects  that  the  Old  Testament  had  received  full 
canonical  authority  together  with  the  New  Testament  writings. 
But  at  the  same  time  it  involved  serious  losses.    The  knowledge 

'  II  Nice,  Canon  VII:  "And  if  any  bishop  shall  henceforth  proceed  to  conse- 
crate a  church  without  holy  relics,  he  shall  be  degraded  as  a  transgressor  against 
churchly  traditions."  Cf.  also  Canon  XVII  of  the  Sixth  Synod  of  Carthage. 
(Hefele,  II,  Edinburgh,  1876,  p.  426.)  '  Canon  XXIX. 


THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  OR  BISHOP'S  CHURCH    257 

of  its  pages  was  utterly  uncritical  and  unhistorical.  It  involved 
the  reintroduction  of  false  conceptions  of  sacrifice  and  of  out- 
worn conceptions  of  physical  purification  from  which  Jesus 
sought  to  free  us,  and  they  still  hold  their  place  in  even  some 
Protestant  circles/ 

The  Gnostic  Judaism  of  a  Philo,  with  the  artificial  interpreta- 
tion characteristic  of  the  school  played  havoc  with  the  Scripture 
reading  of  the  early  fathers,  and  made  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments ready  sources  for  the  defence  of  any  particular  superstition 
that  served  the  momentary  purpose  of  the  ecclesiastical  impe- 
rialism.^ 

At  this  stage  the  Eastern  church  hardened  into  the  religious 
organization  which  it  has  remained  almost  up  to  the  present. 
The  struggle  with  Rome  engendered  the  undying  hate  that  kept 
the  two  communions  apart,  because  subjection  to  the  Vatican 
was  the  only  condition  of  union.  True,  the  final  break  was  long 
postponed,^  and  yet  the  break  with  Leo  IX  (1054)  and  the  final 
rupture  in  1204  were  but  the  seals  on  what  was  really  accom- 
plished in  the  struggle  over  Photius  (858).* 

For  the  student  of  the  unrolling  of  a  Christian  morality  the 
pages  of  the  history  of  the  Eastern  church  have  an  unending 
interest,  but  for  the  history  of  a  development  of  ethics  as  a 
theory  of  conduct  the  book  is  closed  with  the  canons  of  the  second 
Nicaean  council. 

'  Instructive  is  Ambrose  "de  Officiis  Ministrorum,"  lib.  I,  c.  50,  to  which 
reference  was  made  on  p.  205. 

^  "Jerome  contra  Jo\4nianum,"  lib.  II,  cap.  15. 

'  C/.  Miiller,  Karl:   " Kirchengeschichte,"  vol.  I  (1892),  pp.  369-372. 

*  Cf.  Bonwetsch,  G.  N. :  "  Griechisch-orthodoxes  Christentum  und  Kirche  in 
Mittelalter  und  Neuzeit,"  in  P.  Hinneberg's  series;  "Die  Kultur  der  Gegen- 
wart,"  teil  I,  Abteil.  4  (1905),  pp.  161-182,  and  Kattenbusch,  F.:  "  Orientalische 
Kirche,"  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "  Realencyklopadie,"  XIV  (1904),  pp.  436-467. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS   ETHICS 

I.  The  Separation  of  the  East  from  the  West;  The  Intellectual  Elements 
and  the  Cult;  The  Political  Ambition — II.  Relations  of  Church  and 
State  in  the  Two  Wings  of  Christianity;  Gregory  I;  Bede — III.  The 
Missionary  Movement  and  the  Monastery;  Augustine;  Bonifacius; 
Alcuin — IV.  The  Actual  Working  Ethics  of  the  Roman  Church;  The 
Slave  Question;  Woman;  Land  Question;   Dignity  of  Labor;   Law. 

I.      THE    SEPARATION    OF    THE    EAST    FROM    THE    WEST 

Early  in  the  history  of  organized  Christianity,  even  before 
the  days  of  Leo  I  (440-461),  the  distinct  difference  in  spirit 
between  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  churches  became  evident. 
For  some  time  the  African  church  formed  a  connecting  link 
between  the  two,  but  as  the  centres  of  activity  moved  northward, 
and  as  Islam  advanced,  she  ceased  to  influence  the  destiny  of 
either  branch. 

In  the  East  the  metaphysical  and  the  dogmatic  interests  had 
been  supreme.  But  the  crushing  weight  of  Byzantianism  trans- 
formed the  life  of  the  Eastern  church.  The  old  excuse  of 
Constantine  for  the  establishment  of  Christianity  was  the  unity 
of  the  empire.  From  that  fatal  day  the  Eastern  church  became, 
and  remains  to  a  large  degree,  the  mere  tool  of  autocracy,  with 
ignorance  as  its  chief  weapon. 

The  cult  then  took  the  place  of  any  intellectual  interest. 
Hence  the  struggle  in  the  Eastern  church  over  the  icons  was 
characteristic  as  a  turning-point  in  her  history,  and  from  the 
triumph  of  those  who  substituted  cult  for  thought  the  Eastern 
church  almost  ceases  to  interest  the  student  of  theoretical  ethics. 
This  triumph  was  due  to  the  monks,  whose  fierce  insistence  upon 
the  legitimacy  of  the  worship  of  images  carried  the  day.     The 

358 


THE  militant' PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS   259 

interest  of  the  anti-picture  party,  with  the  iconoclastic  emperors 
at  their  head,  was  hardly  confined  to  the  establishment  of  a 
purer  type  of  worship;  it  was  the  demand  for  a  simpler  basis  of 
church  unity  and  for  freedom  from  the  dominance  of  the  mon- 
astery. And  its  deepest  root  was  in  the  subordination  of  all 
other  interests  to  those  of  cult  correctness. 

Hence  the  increasing  ethical  barrenness  of  the  Eastern  litera- 
ture from  St.  Maximus  the  Confessor  (580-662,  about)  to  the 
voluminous  and  most  influential  John  0}  Damascus.^  The 
liturgical  and  ritual  development  is  rich,  and  if  varied  in  value 
yet  remains  a  wonderful  product  of  religious  genius.^  At  the 
same  time  the  energies  seem  to  have  been  absorbed  so  com- 
pletely in  this  direction  and  in  the  doctrinal  disputes  that  the 
ethical  suffered  distinct  eclipse. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  a  matter  of  life  or  death  for  the 
Roman  church  to  impose  her  culture  and  her  ideals  upon  the 
strong  rude  invaders  from  the  north.  That  these  were  in 
many  cases  already  nominal  Christians  prepared  the  way,  but 
from  Rome's  point  of  view  did  not  lessen  her  duty,  for  nothing 
less  than  complete  subordination  to  Rome  could  fulfil  the 
dream  that  had  taken  the  place  of  the  primitive  conception  of  a 
spiritual  kingdom  of  God.  Not  the  Pope  only  but  the  serious- 
minded  began  to  long  for  visible  imperial  unity  again  under 
religious  leadership. 


*John  of  Damascus  (about  676-754),  the  great  Greek  theologian  whose 
works  are  epoch-making  for  Byzantine  dogmatic  Christianity.  Cf.  Katten- 
busch,  F.:  "Johannes  von  Damaskus,"  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie," 
IX,  1901,  pp.  286-300;  and  for  the  controversy  about  images  in  which  he  played 
a  principal  part,  see  Bonwetsch,  G.  N.:  "  Bilderverehrung  und  Bilderstreit,"  in 
Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  II,  1897,  pp.  221-226;  Schwarzlose, 
Karl:  "Der  Bilderstreit,  ein  Kampf  der  griechischen  Kirche  um  ihre  Eigenart 
und  um  ihre  Freiheit,"  Gotha,  1890,  and  the  discussion  in  F.  Kattenbusch's 
"Lehrbuch   der   vergleichenden    Confessionskunde,"    I,    Freiburg,    1892,   pp. 

456-475- 

2  See  Neale,  J.  M. :  "  History  of  the  Holy  Eastern  Church,"  1850,  Introduction, 
part  I,  book  III,  pp.  317-526;  also  "Christ  et  Paranikas,  Math.  Anthologia 
Graeca  carminum  Christianorum  adornaverunt,"  Leipsic,  187 1,  with  interesting 
introduction  on  the  liturgical  use  of  the  hymn. 


26o  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Hence  we  pass  in  our  history  almost  completely  away  from 
the  East  to  follow  the  ethical  development  under  the  skilful 
and  ofttimes  unscrupulous,  but  generally  forceful,  leadership  of 
the  Roman  hierarchy. 

From  the  time  of  Leo  I  (440-461)  to  Gregory  I  (590-604) 
the  church  is  still  the  Bishop's  church.  Even  Gregory  I  was 
profuse  in  his  humble  disclaimer  of  all  supreme  titles,^  while 
claiming  for  Rome  powers  of  most  arrogant  interference  with 
the  internal  affairs  of  other  dioceses.  Under  the  shrewd  and 
forceful  leadership  of  Gregory  I  we  see  the  Roman  church  and 
the  ethical  ideals  assume  a  distinct  and  permanent  character. 

The  new  factor  in  the  situation  is  the  rising  Germanic  civiliza- 
tion overgrowing  and  mastering  the  remains  of  Hellenistic 
power  and  culture.  It  was  with  true  and  sure  instinct  that 
Gregory  I  turned  to  Gaul  and  England  as  the  future  fields  for 
Rome's  activity.  At  the  same  time  this  transference  of  interest 
marks  the  growing  separation  between  East  and  West. 

As  the  conquests  of  Islam  from  this  on  weakened  the  African 
church  and  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  East,  Rome  turned 
with  increasing  concentration  of  purpose  to  the  subjugation  of 
a  new  world. 

Rome  accepted  as  the  basis  for  her  mission  the  dogmatic  con- 
struction handed  over  to  her  by  the  East.  The  intrusion  of 
Leo  I  upon  the  field  of  dogmatic  discussion  had  no  real  intel- 
lectual interest,  but  was  simply  the  excuse  for  the  assertion  of 
central  and  final  authority. 

Dogmatic  discussion  goes  on,  it  is  true,  but  it  is  increasingly 
subordinated  to  questions  of  authority  and  cult.  Both  in  the 
East  and  the  West  intellectual  interest  is  almost  wholly  swal- 
lowed up  in  practical  purpose.  Even  the  remains  of  Hellenistic 
curiosity  in  the  Eastern  church  are  taken  up  with  small  details, 
and  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  disputes  arc  about  no  great  new 
dogmatic  issues,  but  only  concern  the  bringing  of  the  Arian 
heretics  under  the  sway  of  Rome  and  the  fixing  of  the  cult 
(Easter  celebration,  fasts,  etc.). 

'  Epis.,  V.  18;  cj.  Giescler,  I,  2,  p.  228. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    261 

It  is  perfectly  evident  as  one  studies  the  life  work  of  such  an 
Eastern  leader  as  Photius,^  that  national  or  perhaps  better,  sec- 
tional feeling,  the  pride  of  history  and  tongue  (Latin  a  "barbar- 
ous tongue"),  the  conception  of  life,  the  social  ideals,  had  quite 
as  much  to  do  with  the  ecclesiastical  schism  as  any  doctrinal 
divergence.  The  tottering  neo-Greek  world  could  not  and  did 
not  understand  the  new  power  rising  in  the  West.  The  Roman 
pontiff  did  comprehend  it  in  a  measure,  and  as  Rome  died  to 
Eastern  sway  she  rose  again  to  Western  domination. 

II.     THE  RELATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  STATE 

The  most  complicated  question  the  student  of  Christian 
ethics  has  to  face  is  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State.  It 
is  involved  in  the  whole  complicated  history  of  feudalism. 

As  a  new  social  order  rose  on  the  basis  of  the  great  Roman 
estates,  and  the  German  and  Frankish  communal  customs,^  the 
question  that  had  to  be  answered  on  all  sides  was  what  relation 
the  organized  church  was  to  bear  to  the  new  powers.  Here 
Rome's  claim  to  rule  as  over-lord  in  the  name  of  Christ  all  the 
newly  rising  kingdoms  of  the  north  began  to  be  formulated. 
From  the  time  of  Leo  I  onward  this  struggle  for  place  in  the 

*  Photius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople  from  about  857  to  867  and 
878-886;  died  about  897.  Cf.  Kattenbusch,  F.:  "Photius,"  in  Herzog- 
Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  XV.,  1904,  pp.  374-393,  where  the  abundant 
literature  is  given.  His  chief  works  were  "Bibliotheca"  or  "  Myriobiblon" 
(Latin  translation  by  Schott,  1653),  in  which  he  reviews  some  280  works 
with  extracts  {cf.  Migne,  "Pat.  Greca"  torn.  101-104);  the  "  Amphilochia" 
{cf.  Hergenrother,  J.:  "Photius,  Patriarch  von  Constantinopel,  sein  Leben, 
seine  Schriften  und  das  griechische  Schisma,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  36),  and  his 
letters  (Migne);  also  the  author  of  many  polemical  works  and  miscellaneous 
tracts. 

*  For  the  literature  of  feudalism,  see  besides  the  standard  histories  an 
admirable  little  summary  in  Robinson,  Jas.  H. :  "An  Introduction  to  the 
History  of  Western  Europe"  (Boston,  1903),  pp.  104-119.  Much  remains 
to  be  done  in  detailed  investigation,  as,  for  instance,  the  fidelity-oath  to  the 
English  king  which  changed  the  land  laws  of  England.  But  on  the  whole 
the  main  outline  of  the  rise  of  feudalism  is  now  settled.  See  Emerton, 
Ephraim:  "Medieval  Europe,  814-1300,"  (Boston,  1894),  chap.  14.,  pp. 
477-508- 


262  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

new  social  order  dominates  the  whole  situation.  Every  bishop, 
every  monastery,  indeed,  nearly  every  church,  had  property 
interests  to  be  guarded  in  the  new  distribution  of  power  and 
authority. 

True  it  is  that  this  struggle  involved  the  church  of  necessity  in 
all  manner  of  palpable  contradictions.  For  her  mission  of 
culture  and  education  she  needed  both  property  and  authority 
while  professing  to  disclaim  both.  She  had  no  thought-out 
doctrine  of  the  relation  of  Church  to  State.  The  old  tradition  of 
the  State  as  a  hostile  power  came  down  from  the  pre-Constantine 
days,  and  survives  with  a  measure  of  truth  to  this  day.  On  the 
other  hand,  from  Constantine  on  the  peace  that  had  been 
established  between  the  Church  and  State  in  the  Eastern  world 
never  ceased  to  be  the  model  for  all  the  rising  temporal  authori- 
ties in  the  West,  for  this  meant  a  large  subordination  of  the 
Church  to  the  State. 

With  this  solution  Rome,  even  at  her  worst,  was  never  quite 
satisfied.  She  was  constantly,  though  not  always  equally  con- 
sciously, struggling  for  over-lordship  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that 
term,  and  her  relative  success  still  haunts  her  dreams,  even 
though  feudalism  is  most  palpably  a  thing  of  the  past. 

It  is  evident  that  the  State  is  a  means  of  culture,  and  human 
experience  has  accepted  it  as  quite  as  "divine"  in  its  activity 
as  any  other  agency  for  human  progress  is  a  "divine"  agency. 
But  Rome  could  not  and  cannot  even  to-day  shake  off  the  dual- 
ism that  establishes  a  world-wide  difference  between  that  which 
is  "secular"  and  that  which  is  "sacred."  The  claim  to  mediate 
as  by  her  magic  between  two  worlds  seemed  too  important  to  sur- 
render. Hence  Rome  was  bound  to  enforce  her  supreme  claim 
as  over-lord  because  the  "secular"  must  be  secondary  in  real 
importance  to  the  "  sacred."  *    Hence  the  struggle  of  the  militant 

*  Gregory  I  says  in  the  preface  to  his  "  Moralium":  "  Blessed  Job  is  bidden 
to  intercede  for  them  (the  friends)  because  the  sacrifice  of  heretics  can  never 
be  acceptable  to  God  unless  offered  for  them  by  the  hands  of  the  universal 
church,  so  that  by  her  merits  they  may  obtain  again  salvation  (remedium 
salutis  inveniant)  whom  by  the  arrows  of  their  words  they  did  assail 
wounding  her."     VIII  :  17. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    263 

papacy  for  feudal  power  and  acknowledged  supremacy.  In  this 
struggle  the  organization  was  bound  to  suffer  all  kinds  of  injury. 
When  she  was  successful,  ambitious  men  took  advantage  of  her 
success  for  their  selfish  purposes.  When  her  leadership  was 
weak,  the  same  selfishness  despoiled  and  robbed  her  of  her 
possessions. 

These  facts  stared  Gregory  I,^  "  the  Greai,^^  in  the  face  when 
he  was  called  to  take  charge  of  "  his  rotten,  leaky  vessel."  ^  The 
church  had  no  force  available  to  wring  from  the  wild  Lombard- 
ians  any  real  acknowledgment  of  her  claims.  She  had  to  turn 
in  her  dire  need  to  the  emperor,  and  from  him  Gregory  had  to 
seek  confirmation  of  his  election.  The  painful  results  of  such  an 
attitude  of  dependence  upon  a  corrupt  State  is  nowhere  seen 
more  plainly  than  in  the  attitude  of  Gregory  himself  to  the 
murderous  Phocas  and  his  equally  guilty  wife.^    And  when  we 

'  Gregory  the  Great,  I,  was  Bishop  of  Rome  from  590  to  604.  He  was 
born  of  noble  and  wealthy  parents,  probably  about  540.  Pope  Felix  III 
was  one  among  his  ancestors.  He  gave  up  his  property  and  high  official 
position  to  become  a  monk,  from  which  vocation  he  was  compelled  by 
popular  clamor  to  take  up  the  bishopric  of  Rome.  At  least  so  we  are  told 
in  the  two  short  lives  given  in  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  75,  by  Deacon  Paul, 
cols.  41-60,  and  Deacon  John,  in  four  books,  cols.  59-242.  His  works 
are  volumnious  (Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  75-78).  Most  instructive  for  us  are  his 
letters,  and  his  commentary  upon  Job,  in  35  books.  C/.  Walther,  W.: 
"  Gregor  I,"  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  VII,  1899,  pp. 
78-89,  and  Lau,  G.  J.  Th.:  "Gregor  I,  der  Grosse,  nach  seinem  Leben 
und  seiner  Lehre  geschildert"  (Leipsic,  1845),  particularly  the  14th  chap, 
of  part  2,  pp.  527-541.  The  illustrations  (adornata)  to  his  life  from  his 
own  works  in  Migne,  tom.  75,  cols.  241-462  are  suggestive.  Cf.  also 
Baxmann,  R.:  "Die  Politik  der  Papste  von  Gregor  I  bis  Gregor  VII," 
Elberfeld,  1868-69,  teil  I,  pp.  44-146.  The  Pastoral  Rule  and  selected 
Epistles  are  translated  by  James  Barmby  in  the  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene 
Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  XII,  pp.  217-243,  and  vol.  XII,  pp.  i-iii. 

^"Sed  quia  vetustam  navim  vehementerque  confractam  indignus  ego 
infirmusque  suscepi  (undique  enim  fluctus  intrant,  et  quotidiana  ac  valida 
tempestate  quassatae  putridae  naufragium  tabulas  sonant),"  .  .  .  Epist. 
liber  I  :  4.      (MPL,  77,  447  B.) 

^  "Considerare  cum  gaudiis  et  magnis  actionibus  gratiarum  libet  quantas 
omnipotenti  Domino  laudes  debemus,  quod,  remoto  jugo  tristitise  ad 
libertatis  tempora,  sub  imperiali  benignitatis  vestra;  pietate  pervenimus." 
Epistolarum,  Hber  XIII,  Epist.  38.     When  we  think  that  this  Phocas  had 


264  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

turn  to  the  actual  morals  of  Gregory,  as  reflected  in  his  very 
wearisome  exposition  of  Job,  we  see,  not  a  system  of  ethical 
thinking,  but  a  conglomerate  of  oriental  monkish  quietism,  of 
pagan  ethics  dominated  by  imperial  ambitions,  and  strangely 
interwoven  with  real  Christian  feeling. 

Here  we  see  the  materials  of  the  culture  by  which  the  militant 
papacy  gained  her  primacy  among  the  peoples  of  the  north. 
She  came  bearing  an  absolute  authority.  It  is  of  slight  importance 
who  wrote  Job :  the  author  was  but  the  pen  of  the  Holy  Spirit.* 
The  trials  are  sent  by  Satan,  as  Job  represents  Christ,  or  Christ 
in  his  church  assailed  by  many  enemies.^  Job's  patience  in  his 
trouble  is  typical  of  the  saints'  attitude  toward  the  various 
woes  of  life.^  The  false  friends  are  the  heretics."  Job  himself 
is  typical  of  Christ,  as  his  name  implies,^  and  as  Job  receives 
double  for  all  his  losses,  so  also  the  saints  will  receive  here  one 
blessedness,  and  after  the  resurrection  twofold.^  Throughout 
there  is  to  be  seen  the  "sensus  historicus"  and  the  "sensus  alle- 
goricus"  and  the  "  sensus  moralis."  Thus  to  fastidious  souls  are 
offered  various  kinds  of  food.'  The  four  cardinal  virtues  and 
the  three  evangelical  ones  are  offset  by  formidable  lists  of  vices, 
and  free-will  and  predestination  are  both  taught,*  Life  is  a 
series  of  struggles  and  temptations,  and  ascetic  despondency 
seent€d  often  about  to  gain  the  upper  hand;  ^  but  we  must  have 
joy  even  in  our  temptations  and  rise  with  new  vigor  for  the  con- 
flict.*" The  use  or  rather  misuse  of  Scripture  is  everywhere 
evident,  and  the  contradictions  and  absurdities  that  mingle  with 
much  good  sense  and  real  piety  are  characteristic  of  the  day  and 

brutally  slain  the  eight  princes  before  the  eye  of  the  father  and  then  mur- 
dered the  father  whom  Gregory  had  himself  loaded  with  flattery  and  en- 
treaty (c/.  p:pistoljE  III  :  65;  V  :  20;  V  :  30;  V  :  40,  etc.),  the  baseness  of 
the  flattery  fairly  startles  us.  For  Gregory  was  an  upright  man  as  few  men 
in  history  have  been  unselfish  and  upright.      (MPL,  77  :  1287  C.) 

'  Moralium,  Prrefatio  I  :  2-3.  '  Moralium,  Prx-fatio  IV  :  9. 

'  Prx'fatio  V  :  11.  *  Pr.tfatio  VI  :  15. 

'  Moralium,  Pr;cfatio  VII  :  16.  *  Moralium,  Prrefatio  X  :  20. 

'  Moralium,  liber  I  :  36  :  56,  and  in  IV.  I.  i  sensus  historicus. 

'  Moralium  II  :  37  :  60;  cf.  with  III  :  14-27. 

•  Moralium  IV  :  I  (Rcc.  V)  i.  "  Moralium    V  :  17  :  34. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    265 

stage  of  the  world's  thought.  There  moves  also  throughout  the 
moralisms  a  tremendously  serious  purpose  and  courage.  The 
saint  is  armed  and  ready  for  all  assaults,  those  of  the  sword  of 
war,  the  tongue  of  scorn,  and  against  internal  and  external  foes 
of  his  peace.*  Amidst  all  the  really  puerile  reasonings  and  false 
ethics  there  lives  that  faith  that  was  to  carry  the  half-culture  of 
the  paganized  church  to  the  nations  growing  up  in  the  north. 

The  world  as  we  see  it  through  the  glasses  of  the  ascetic  monk- 
autocrat  was  indeed  a  disordered  world.^  And  yet  it  is  unhistor- 
ical  to  forget  that  the  world  is  always  disordered,  and  that  did 
we  know  the  lower  world  of  Rome  and  Athens  at  their  best  we 
would  more  vividly  realize  how  disordered  those  worlds  were 
in  spite  of  the  high  culture  of  a  very  few. 

We  must  remember  that  the  world  of  Athens  compelled  Socrates 
to  drink  poison,  sold  Plato  on  the  auction  block  into  slavery,  and 
slew  Aristotle  with  homesickness  in  lonely  banishment;  and 
that  the  world  of  Rome  thrust  a  golden  needle  through  the  tongue 
of  Cicero's  dishonored  head,  rejoiced  in  the  fearful  brutalities 
of  the  arena,  and  gave  itself  up  to  nameless  excesses. 

The  almost  childishly  superstitious  organization  that  claimed 
the  name  Christian  was  probably  not  more  haunted  by  the 
ghosts  of  ignorance  and  primitive  terror  than  the  world  at  the 
height  of  Athenian  culture.  But  it  was  now  a  larger  world. 
The  broken  culture  of  the  few  was  being  made  the  possession  of 
the  many.  It  suffered  in  transmission.  Culture  always  does 
so  suffer  even  in  our  own  day.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  are 
ethical  values  in  the  Moralium  of  Gregory  the  Great  and  the 
sentences  of  Isidore  of  Seville  which  have  no  parallel  in  the 
classic  ethics  of  paganism.  The  softer  virtues  of  love,  penitence, 
faith  in  the  world-order,  hope  and  joy  in  the  triumph  of  virtue, 
are  not  only  present,  but  take  their  place  in  the  organization  of 
the  new  world. 

Much  one  could  wish  were  otherwise  in  the  morality  of  Greg- 

•  Moralium  VI  :  29  :  46. 

^  Cf.  Sancti  Gregorii  Papaei  Vita,  ex  ejus  potissimum  scriptis  secens 
adornata.     Migne  "  Pat.  Lat."  torn.  75,  cols.  241-462. 


266  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

ory.  It  is  the  ascetic  quietist  type  that  is  often  most  attractive 
in  him;  but  with  all  that  we  owe  the  monastery,  it  handed  down 
a  perverted  ideal  and  Gregory  accepted  fully  this  perverted  view 
of  life.  For  him  in  theory  the  contemplative  life  was  the  full 
life,  and  yet  even  he  realized  that  for  most  men  life  must  be  a 
struggle,  and  that  on  earth  the  "solitudo  cordis"  was  only  a 
means  to  strengthen  us  for  that  struggle,^  He  plainly  realized 
the  need  of  compromise  that  the  organized  church  might  do  her 
work,  and  so  accepts  both  imperialism  and  the  monastery  in  spite 
of  all  the  contradictions  that  involved. 

It  is  thus  quite  vain  to  attempt  to  systematize  the  thought  of 
Gregory  the  Great.  All  the  elements  of  a  world  that  was  "  in 
process  of  becoming"  were  in  him.  Imperial  ambition  jostles 
with  world-flight.  Love  of  the  brethren  is  a  fellow-servant  of 
hatred  to  the  heretic.  The  family  is  praised  and  guarded,  while 
celibacy  is  lauded  and  forced  upon  the  lower  clergy.  The 
State  is  the  guardian  of  the  church  and  yet  her  leading  rival. 
Haughty  and  arrogant  claims  are  set  forth  in  the  meek  and 
humble  accents  of  a  servant  of  the  cross.  Pagan  and  Christian 
motives  walk  hand  in  hand  in  a  seemingly  lasting  friendship. 

There  is  really  no  use  attempting  to  construct  an  ethical 
system  out  of  the  massed-up  contradictory  elements  that  stare 
the  reader  in  the  face.  Nor  did  Gregory  himself  consciously 
attempt  any  rationalization  of  the  elements  of  conduct,  faith,  and 
culture  thus  handed  over  simply  for  reproduction  and  practical 
purposes.  The  age  pressed  for  action  rather  than  reflection. 
The  old  struggle  of  imperial  Rome  was  being  carried  on  on 
another  field,  and  the  struggle  for  power  was  only  hampered  by 
rationalization. 

Nor  was  the  work  of  the  unifying  hierarchy  badly  done  by 
Gregory  I.  He  was  in  many  ways  a  truly  great  ethical  factor. 
He  was  a  real  monk,  with  far  more  of  the  inwardness  of  the 
monastery  ethical  type  than,  for  instance,  Gregory  VII.  His 
services  to  the  music  of  Europe  are  immortal.  Not  the  music 
founded  on  erotic  dance,  nor  even  the  melody  of  the  laughing 

'  Moralium  XXX  :  i6  :  52-55. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS     267 

South  have  taken  the  place  of  primacy  in  the  worid  of  music; 
but  the  solemn  choral  based  on  the  churchly  chant  echoes 
through  Bach,  Beethoven,  Schubert,  Weber,  Wagner,  and 
Brahms.  And  it  v^as  Gregory  I  that  forced  on  unwilling  Gaul 
and  all  the  world  of  religious  culture  for  ages  the  Gregorian  chant. 

With  Gregory's  name  will  also  forever  be  linked  the  spiritual 
conquest  of  Great  Britain.  The  oft-re-echoed  story  of  Bede 
may  or  may  not  be  true,  but  the  sending  of  emissaries  to  take 
possession  of  Great  Britain  in  the  name  of  Rome  was  more  far- 
seeing  than  Caesar's  adventurous  conquest. 

The  story  of  that  missionary  enterprise  marks  the  beginning 
of  the  conquest  of  England's  church  by  Rome.  The  details 
of  the  first  founding  of  an  English  church  are  wrapt  in  myth  and 
legend,  for  it  is  quite  amazing  that  the  history  as  transmitted  to  us 
by  the  venerable  Bede,^  and  which  is  full  of  wonders,  miracles, 
and  impossible  dates,  should  be  taken  as  seriously  as  it  is  by 
some  critical  historians.  With  this  mass  of  miracles,  legend, 
and  allegory,  amid  which  it  is  now  quite  impossible  to  pick  out 
the  actual  history,  as  the  only  source  of  information  on  many 
points,  one  must  simply  be  content  to  rest  in  ignorance,  for  the 
work  of  Bede  is  altogether  too  evidently  uncritical  and  fanciful 
to  be  trusted. 

Yet  the  history  and  his  letters  have  for  us  one  great  value: 
they  open  up  to  us  the  world  in  which  a  really  formative  religious 
culture  was  doing  its  work.  The  angels,  devils,  dreams,  mira- 
cles, and  magic  of  Bede's  world  were  not  introduced  by  Chris- 
tianity. That  was  the  world  in  which  a  comparative  barbarism 
was  hving. 

*  Bede  (Beda,  Basda)  Venerabilis,  674-735,  was  from  near  Wearmouth, 
and  within  the  walls  of  her  cloister  did  his  great  life's  work.  Best  known 
from  his  "Historia  Ecclesiastica  Gentis  Anglorum,"  best  edition,  Oxonii 
(Oxford),  i8g6.  Collected  works  by  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  90-95.  See 
article  by  Wm.  Stubbs  in  Smith  and  Wace's  "Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography,"  I,  1877,  pp.  300-304,  and  article  by  Seebach  in  Herzog- 
Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  II,  1897,  pp.  510-514;  cf.  the  New  SchaCf- 
Herzog,  II,  1908,  pp.  22-23,  where  complaint  is  made  of  the  lack  of  a 
really  critically  edited  edition. 


268  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

To  this  world  Bede  and  his  fellow-workers  brought  new  ele- 
ments and  a  new  ethical  purpose  and  life.  The  monks  sent  by 
Gregory  to  England  came,  Bede  says,  with  a  silver  cross  and  the 
image  of  Our  Lord  painted  on  a  board,  with  procession  and  with 
prayer.  But  the  real  content  of  their  message  he  gives  in  the 
litany:  "We  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  in  all  thy  mercy  that  thy 
anger  and  wrath  be  turned  away  from  this  city,  and  from  thy 
holy  house,  because  we  have  sinned.  Hallelujah!"  The  induce- 
ments to  accept  the  message  of  forgiveness  were  everlasting  joy 
in  heaven,  and  the  kingdom  that  would  never  end  with  God. 
At  the  same  time  "the  service  of  Christ  ought  to  be  voluntary 
and  not  by  compulsion."  * 

The  main  virtue  in  Bede's  mind  is  humility.  In  his  history ' 
he  pictures  the  tests  by  which  the  messengers  of  the  cross  are 
to  be  judged:  "If,  therefore,  Augustine  is  meek  and  lowly  of 
heart,  it  is  to  be  believed  that  he  has  taken  upon  him  the  yoke 
of  Christ,  and  offers  the  same  to  you  to  take  upon  you.  But 
if  he  is  stem  and  haughty,  it  appears  that  he  is  not  from  God, 
nor  are  we  to  regard  his  words."  So  that  even  in  a  world  in 
which  miracles  are  the  ordinary  accepted  test  of  truth,  the 
ethical  test  is  put  forward  as  the  final  and  real  one. 

And  again  in  Bede's  letter  to  Eckbert  the  bishop,  the  conduct 
of  the  monastery  and  the  life  of  the  priest  are  treated  as  the  con- 
clusive evidence  of  the  divine  life  in  the  church.  The  monastic 
temper  of  Bede  is  very  pronounced,  and  yet  like  Jerome  he 
bound  it  up  with  love  of  learning  and  art.  Mathematics  and 
music  received  his  constant  attention,  and  his  historical  effort, 
no  matter  how  uncritical  and  untrustworthy,  reflects  the  literary 
and  historical  interest  that  still  bound  the  Western  monastery  to 
the  world. 

Moreo\'er,  to  rightly  estimate  the  ethical  ideal  Bede  held  up 
to  the  world  of  his  day  we  must  realize  what  medicine  that  sick 
world  wanted.  For  the  world  was  sick.  It  was  an  age  of 
transition  from  one  cultural  stage  to  another,  and  the  ethics  of 

'  "  Historia  Ecclesiastica  Gcntis  Anglorum,"  liber  I,  cap.  26. 
*  "  Ilistoria  Ecclcs,"  liber  II  :  2. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    269 

the  one  period  were  not  fitted  for  the  direction  of  life  in  the  new. 
The  simple  rules  and  habits  of  conduct  whose  observance  keep 
men  relatively  moral  in  the  routine  of  primitive  life  may  be 
utterly  inadequate  for  new  and  complex  conditions.  To  the 
northern  world  these  new  complexities  had  come.  And  with 
them  came  the  ethical  entanglements  that  were  inevitable. 

Some  critics  of  the  period  write  as  though  the  church  had  been 
the  only  bearer  of  Roman  and  Greek  culture.  That  is  not  true. 
The  armies  of  Rome  were  the  first  messengers  both  to  Gaul  and 
Britain.  The  destruction  of  primitive  organization  had  gone 
far  and  wide.  The  work  of  reconstruction  was  only  beginning. 
To  make  effective  the  work  of  Rome  as  an  agent  of  culture  it  was 
essential  that  her  authority  be  established  and  maintained.  In 
far-off  regions  lonely  missionaries  loved  to  dwell  upon  the  power 
and  authority  of  Rome,  and  thus  her  missionary  enterprises 
became  important  factors  in  the  question  between  the  Roman 
church  and  other  forces.  To  make  Rome  supreme  seemed  to 
strengthen  her  all  along  the  line  of  her  missionary  life. 

III.      THE  MISSIONARY   MOVEMENT  AND  THE   MONASTERY 

Among  the  agencies  reconstructing  human  life  not  the 
least  was  the  monastic  missionary.  Amid  much  corruption 
and  decay  in  the  Western  church  the  constantly  healing  and 
redeeming  factor  was  the  social  service  rendered  by  the  monas- 
tery. It  was  the  monastery  rather  than  the  hierarchy  that 
deserves  the  crown,  but  in  Gregory  the  Great  the  work  of  Atha- 
nasius  was  completed.  The  monastery  was  merged  more  and 
more  in  the  hierarchy  and  subordinated  to  its  ends.  So  that 
from  Gregory  on  the  triumphs  of  the  monastery  were  the  glory 
and  the  profit  of  the  church. 

One  remarkable  feature  of  the  missionary  movement  is  the 
place  that  the  cult  has  in  it.  From  the  time  of  the  British  mis- 
sionary Augustine,  sent  by  Gregory  I  to  convert  England,  to  the 
final  subjugation  of  the  north  to  Rome,  the  struggle  is  not  so 
much  for  dogmatic  correctness  as  for  ritual  unity.     This  was 


270  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

perhaps  natural.  Dogmatic  disputes  in  the  early  Greek  sense 
were  above  and  beyond  the  hardy  fighting  Germanic  aristocracy 
and  wholly  indifferent  to  the  mixed  lower  classes  that  aristocracy 
governed.  So,  also,  even  making  all  allowances  for  the  extrava- 
gance of  Tacitus,  in  his  preaching  to  Rome  with  the  Teutons 
as  a  text,  the  ethics  of  the  Germanic  people  did  not  need  as  much 
patching  up  as  the  morals  of  the  decadent  Italian  population. 
To  the  fierce  war-loving  tribes,  however,  the  message  of  the 
gentleness  and  suffering  of  Jesus,  the  tenderness  of  the  "Mother 
of  God,"  and  the  passive  courage  of  the  saints  and  martyrs 
came  with  power. 

The  earliest  literature  in  England  and  Germany  reflects  the 
ideals  thus  created,  the  forerunners  of  the  strange  mingling  of 
fierce  passionate  insolence  with  tenderest  pity  and  grace  which 
mark  the  feudal  ideal  as  we  shall  study  it  in  the  Middle  Ages.' 

The  missionary  work  of  the  church  had,  indeed,  also  to  go  on 
in  the  south  and  southern  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire  from  the 
earliest  day  until  the  struggle  with  Mahometanism.^  Yet  the 
main  task  was  toward  the  north,  and  the  storm  of  Mahometan 
invasion  left  the  corrupted  wellnigh  heathen  church  of  the 
south  and  Africa  a  mere  ruin. 

It  is  extreme  to  say  with  Felix  Dahn  that  the  Germanic  tribes 
became  Christians  just  because  that  was  the  State  religion  of 
Rome,  and  that  had  it  been  Buddhism  or  Isis  worship  they 
would  have  accepted  that.^  In  fact,  Christianity  had  made 
progress  among  the  Goths  before  ever  it  had  become  the  official 
religion  of  the  Roman  State.*    Moreover,  the  fact  that  it  was  the 

'  C/.  Ebert,  Adolf:  "Allgemeine  Geschichte  der  Literatur  des  Mittel- 
alters  im  Abendlande  bis  zum  XI  Jahrhundert,"  vol.  I  (Leipsic,  1889), 
pp.  612-659. 

*  C/.  Duchesne,  Abb^  Louis:  "Les  Missions  chretiennes  au  sud  de 
I'Empire  Romain"  (publications  of  the  French  School  at  Rome,  1S96), 
pp.  79-122. 

*  In  Wietersheim,  Ed.:  "Geschichte  der  Volkerwanderung,"  vol.  II, 
2d  ed.  edited  by  Felix  Dahn,  Leipsic,  1881,  p.  53. 

*  Waitz,  Georg:  "Ueber  das  Leben  und  die  Lehrc  des  Ulfila.  Bruch- 
stiicke  cincs  ungcdruckten  Werkes  aus  dcm  Ende  des  4  Jahrhunderts." 
1840,  p.  35. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    271 

religion  of  Rome  was  evidently  often  rather  a  hinderance  than  a 
help,  so  far  as  the  hardy  Germanic  tribes  went,  for  they  looked 
upon  Rome  as  an  enemy. 

The  material  is,  alas,  rather  insufficient  for  forming  more  than 
tentative  opinions,  yet  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  estimate  the  great 
missionary  movement  it  may  be  said,  first,  that  it  is  true  that  the 
forms  of  Christianity  were  in  some  cases  accepted  simply  as  parts 
of  the  superior  culture  the  missionaries  brought  with  them; 
and,  secondly,  that  the  religious  life  of  the  Germanic  tribes  had 
broken  down  much  as  Roman  paganism  had  broken  down  a 
generation  before  the  Ctesars.  Hence  the  tribes  readily  took 
up  the  new  forms  with  which  they  mingled  many  elements  of 
the  old  (Saint  Stories  and  Germanic  Mythology). 

Sometimes  this  mingling  of  the  ethics  of  Christianity  as  under- 
stood by  the  monastery  and  the  remains  of  mythology  was 
harmless  and  poetical.  Sometimes  it  was  much  less  so.  Grave 
superstitions  were  thus  foisted  upon  the  religion  of  the  Middle 
Ages  (witchcraft,  etc.).  The  Germanic  tribes  seem  in  general 
to  have  had  no  fixed  priest  caste,  and  the  roving  military  life  of 
the  aristocracy  had  seemingly  broken  up  such  forms  as  had 
developed  in  more  settled  times. 

And,  thirdly,  it  seems  perfectly  evident  that  Christianity  dealt 
not  with  the  "proletariat"  or  "peasant"  elements,  so  far  as  these 
were  present,  but  with  the  roving  military  aristocracy,  and  so 
became  the  religion  of  the  ruling  class.  This  in  part  explains 
both  the  Saxon  resistance  and  the  exceedingly  rapid  spread  of 
the  monastery  type  of  Christianity  among  the  Goths,  Ostro- 
goths, Longobardians,  Franks,  and  eventually  the  Saxons. 

With  a  special  measure  of  success  Gregory  I  evangelized 
England,  and  here  perhaps  the  power  of  the  church  as  a  force  for 
culture  and  economic  reorganization  might  have  been  seen  at  its 
best  had  not  the  distractions  of  foreign  invasion  so  constantly 
complicated  the  situation. 

The  monastery  was  saved  from  corruption  and  selfishness  by 
its  enthusiastic  acceptance  of  this  cultural  mission  in  which  it 
accomplished  so  much.     The  way  in  which  Jerome,  Ambrose, 


272  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Gregory  of  Nursia,  and  Cassiodorus,  Senator,'^  made  the  monas- 
tery a  refuge  for  learning  and  linked  religion  with  life  and 
scholarship  atones  for  much  of  the  fundamentally  unsocial 
character  of  the  monastery  ethical  ideal.  Nearly  all  we  know 
about  Augustine  as  the  first  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  we  know 
from  the  exceedingly  uncritical  history  of  the  venerable  Bede.^ 
The  failure  of  Augustine  to  win  the  British  church  to  Rome  was 
a  sad  one,  but  in  the  conditions  he  made  one  sees  how  much 
the  ritual  and  the  imperial  interests  dominated  the  ethical.  The 
story  goes  that  the  British  bishops  asked  a  sainted  old  man  if 
they  should  accept  Augustine,  and  he  told  them  "Yes,"  if 
Augustine  had  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  this  they  could  know  if 
he  rose  to  greet  them  when  they  met.  This  Augustine  did  not 
do,  and  the  haughty  demand  that  they  submit  to  him  as  the 
representative  of  Rome  made  them  say:  "If  he  treats  us  so 
before  he  is  our  acknowledged  head,  how  will  he  treat  us  after 
it?"  And  they  refused  obedience.  The  conditions  of  sub- 
mission were  a  correct  Easter  day,  abstinence  from  blood  and 
things  strangled,  and  submission  to  Rome. 

We  see  here  how  small  a  part  ethical  ideals  played  in  the  mes- 
sage, but  how  important  the  central  authority  was  in  the  eyes  of 
the  missionary.     Not  less  so  was  it  important  to  Bonifacius,^ 

'  Cassiodorus,  Magnus  Aurelius,  Senator,  was  born  about  469  or  470 
and  died  about  560.  He  rendered  important  services  to  Theodoric  and  to 
Italy.  He  retired  to  a  monastery  of  his  own  founding,  and  presented  to 
it  his  library  and  by  his  writings  became  in  good  measure  the  mediator  of 
Roman  culture  to  Germanic  Catholicism.  Cf.  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  tom. 
69-70;  and  "The  Letters  of  Cassiodorus,"  a  condensed  translation  of  the 
Variae,  with  introduction,  by  Thomas  Hodgkin,  London,  1886;  also  Herzog- 
Hauck's  "  Realencyklopadie,"  II,  1897,  pp.  749-750,  by  A.  Hauck;  English 
translation,  II,  1908,  pp.  436-437,  and  Smith  and  Wace's  "Dictionary  of 
Christian  Biography,"  I,  1877,  pp.  416-418,  by  E.  M.  Young. 

'  C/.  Montalembert's  "Monks  of  the  West";  Stanley's  "Memorials  of 
Canterbury,"  4th  ed.;  Gocelinus,  "Vita  S.  Augustini";  Migne,  "Pat. 
Lat.,"  tom.  80,  cols.  41-94,  and  also  a  smaller  life  in  tom.  150,  cols.  743-764, 
which  according  to  the  editor  "Auctorem  vixisse  circa  ann.  1000  ex  his 
coUigi  potest."      (MPL,  CL,  765-6.) 

'  Winfred  Bonifacius,  born  somewhere  about  675  to  683,  and  died  755. 
His  birthplace  was  Wessex  in  England.     Early  he  attempted  missions  in 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    273 

who  came  to  Germany  as  the  herald  of  the  hierarchy.  The 
activity  of  the  man  is  surprising,  and  no  doubt  the  regulation 
of  the  somewhat  formless  Christianity  he  found  sitting  lightly 
upon  the  population  of  what  is  now  Bavaria  and  Tiiringen  was 
very  necessary. 

At  the  same  time  one  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  formal 
legal  character  of  his  message  and  the  extreme  poverty  of  the 
religious  and  ethical  ideals.  Uniformity  of  worship,  a  celibate 
priesthood,  the  abolition  of  the  primitive  wandering  bishop,  the 
abstinence  from  horse-flesh  as  food,  etc.,  etc.;  these  are  the 
things  we  find  insisted  upon,  and  as  all-important  is  the  accept- 
ance of  the  authority  of  Rome.  Sexual  purity  and  temperance 
are,  of  course,  enforced,  and  the  purity  of  the  married  relation  is 
conserved  as  far  as  great  legal  severity  could  be  made  to  conserve 
it.  "Illegal  relations  with  concubines  on  the  part  of  laymen 
were  broken  up  by  the  holy  man's  admonitions,  and  the  (mar- 
ried) relations  of  priests  to  women  were  given  up  and  they  lived 
apart."  *  "All  was  reformed  and  atoned  for  in  accordance  with 
the  canons."  The  heathen  relics,  amulets,  charms,  etc.,  were 
banished,  and  Christian  relics,  amulets,  and  charms  were  intro- 
duced. It  is  related  how  wherever  Bonifacius  went  he  bore 
with  him  the  relics  of  the  saints.^ 

In  fact  it  is  evident  from  the  wholesale  way  in  which  the  con- 
versions were  made  that  no  very  important  changes  in  life's 
ideals  were  demanded.  Priests  and  sacred  persons  were  indeed 
not  permitted  to  go  into  battle;  but  sacred  persons  are  seldom 
thus  called  upon  at  any  stage  of  religious  culture,  and  for  the  rest 
the  church  left  the  Germanic  people  about  as  fierce  and  warlike, 

Friesland,  and  then,  after  consultation  with  Gregory  II,  he  became  Rome's 
chief  agent  in  the  attempt  to  centralize  the  Catholic  power  and  induce  the 
Germanic  forces  to  submit  to  Rome.  Cf.  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  89,  cols. 
597-892,  and  especially  "Vita,"  by  Willibald  (translated  into  German  by 
W.  Arndt,  in  "  Geschichtschreiber  der  deutschen  Vorzeit,"  vol.  13,  Leipsic, 
1888);  also  Pfahler's  "St.  Bonifacius  und  seine  Zeit,"  Regensburg,  1880; 
A.  Werner,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  II,  1897,  pp.  301-306, 
English  translation,  II,  1908,  pp.  226-227 

•  "Vita,"  9  :  29.     (MPL,  tom.  LXXXIX,  col.  623.) 

=*  "  Vita,"  8  :  23.     (MPL,  tom.  LXXXIX,  col.  619.) 


274  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

as  grasping  and  overbearing  as  it  found  them.  It  did,  however, 
introduce  some  culture,  order,  respect  for  law,  and  by  its  own 
centralized  political  character  trained  the  nations  for  central 
power  and  national  organization. 

In  this  deepening  of  national  life  by  the  introduction  of  the 
culture  and  the  learning  still  preserved  in  the  Roman  church 
another  Englishman  had  a  most  prominent  place.  The  student 
of  Bede's  works  and  the  teacher  of  Lindger  (the  apostle  to 
Friesland),  and  one  of  the  most  influential  men  in  the  court  of 
Charlemagne,  was  Alcuin,^  who  transferred  to  the  growing 
Frankish  kingdom  the  learning  and  literature  gathered  and 
preserved  in  England,  but  which  would  soon  have  been  lost 
there,  perhaps,  amidst  the  political  disturbances  of  the  following 
century  had  not  the  court  of  Charlemagne  given  it  a  resting- 
place. 

Alcuin  has  for  the  missionary  movement  the  special  significance 
that  he  united  with  the  transmission  of  the  religious  and  ethical 
message  a  very  large  element  of  learning  and  culture.  His 
ethical  ideal  was  that  of  the  monastery,  but  of  the  missionary 
working  monastery.  His  ethics  is  that  of  Augustine,  whom 
he  largely  transcribes  in  his  book,  "De  Virtutibus  et  Vitiis," 
and  his  treatise,  "De  Animae  Ratione."  He  ruled  several 
monasteries,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  was  himself  a 
monk,  yet  his  whole  way  of  thinking  reflects  the  monastic 
culture  of  his  day.  And  he  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  most 
important  process  by  which  the  monastery  became  the  library, 

'  Alcuin  (Flaccus  Albinus)  was  born  in  Northumbria  about  735  and  he 
died  before  815.  He  was  probably  not  a  monk,  but  belonged  to  the 
secular  clergy.  His  works  comprise  his  letters,  exegetical  works  on  nearly 
all  the  books  of  the  Bible,  works  on  liturgy,  on  dogmatic  subjects,  poems 
(including  hymns,  epigrams,  and  poetical  letters),  dialogues  on  grammar, 
rhetoric,  logic,  and  various  topics  including  natural  science,  and  some  works 
on  moral  philosophy,  namely:  "De  Virtutibus  et  Vitiis";  "  De  Animie  Ra- 
tione"; "De  Confessione."  Cf.  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  100  and  loi. 
Monnier,  Francois:  "Alcuin  et  Charlemagne,"  2d  ed.,  Paris,  1863,  and  also 
the  accounts  in  Flerzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopiidie,  I,  1896,  pp.  365-369,  by 
Hahn,  English  translation,  I,  1908,  pp.  111-112,  and  Smith  and  Wace's, 
"Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,"  I,  1877,  pp.  73-76,  by  Wm.  Stubbs. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    275 

the  university,  the  school,  the  refuge  of  the  learned  and  the  con- 
server  of  that  worldly  literature,  art,  and  science  the  hermit  so 
vigorously  sought  to  escape.  This  change  could  not  take  place 
without  a  relative  suppression  of  the  religious  conception,  and 
the  disorders  of  the  monastery  with  which  Rome  struggled 
whenever  she  herself  was  religiously  awakened  appear  steadily 
and  persistently  from  now  on. 

Alcuin  marks  also  the  position  the  Roman  Catholic  scholar 
was  to  take  in  the  important  work  of  transforming  Europe.  As 
the  constant  counsellor  of  the  king,  he  uses  his  place  and  power 
for  the  extension  of  the  two-sworded  kingdom,  rejoicing  when 
the  arms  of  Charlemagne  extended  the  hierarchy's  influence,^ 
and  seeing  in  that  extension  the  victory  of  essential  righteousness. 

The  place  of  emphasis  now  begins  in  the  seclusion  of  the 
cloister  to  change  from  the  ritualistic  and  administrative  to  the 
philosophic  and  dogmatic.  The  speculations  of  Greece  begin 
again  to  work  as  ferment  in  the  minds  of  those  who  found 
leisure  in  the  monastery  denied  to  the  agressive  missionary 
fighting  forces  which  constitute  the  army  of  the  militant  papacy. 
We  shall  see  at  a  later  stage  what  an  important  part,  for  instance, 
in  the  spiritual  life  of  feudalism  was  played  by  the  works  of  the 
pseudo-Dionysius  the  Areopagite.^ 

The  strange  thing  is  how  little  it  is  possible  to  do  more  than 
fix  the  ethical  ideal  of  the  monastery  and  follow  out  that  influ- 

*  "  Primo  sciat  dilectio  tua,  quod  miserante  Deo  sancta  ejus  Ecclesia  in 
partibus  Europas  pacem  habet,  proficit  ac  crescit.  Nam  antiqui  Saxones 
et  omnes  Frisonum  populi,  instante  rege  Carole  alios  prjemiis  et  alios  minis 
sollicitante,  ad  fidem  Christi  conversi  sunt.  Sad  anno  transacto  idem  rex 
cum  exercitu  irrupit  super  Sclavos,  quos  nos  Vionudos  dicimus,  eosque 
subegit  suae  ditioni."     Epistolae  III  (anno  790).     (MPL,  C,  142  B.) 

^  The  "  Writings  "  are  by  an  author  whose  date  is  quite  uncertain,  probably 
before  400;  the  Neoplatonic  and  Pantheistic  type  of  thought  is  pronounced. 
English  translations  by  J.  Parker,  two  parts,  London,  1897-1899  (in  the 
edition  of  1894  is  an  introduction  and  defence  of  authorship  by  Dionysius 
the  Areopagite);  see  also  A.  Harnack,  "Lehrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte," 
II,  1887,  p.  426,  foot-note  I,  English  translation,  vol.  IV,  1898,  p.  282,  foot- 
note 2,  and  also  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  IV,  1898,  pp. 
687-696,  English  translation  by  N.  G.  Bonwetsch;  Westcott  B.  F.:  "Re- 
ligious Thought  in  the  West." 


276  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

ence  in  its  workings  upon  the  ethics  and  law  of  the  northern 
tribes. 

Very  early  both  in  England  and  Germany  the  culture  carried 
by  the  missionary  begins  to  produce  a  distinct  folk-literature, 
and  that  literature  betrays  its  origin  by  the  religious  character  of 
its  themes  (one  thinks  of  Caedmon  and  of  the  "Christ"  of 
Otfried  or  the  "Heliand").  The  hierarchy  is  now  distinctly 
an  aristocratic  social  form,  but  the  celibacy  of  the  priesthood 
ruled  out  a  separate  hereditary  caste,  or  we  might  have  seen  a 
hereditary  hierarchy  grow  up  in  Europe  as  in  India.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  celibacy  the  hierarchy  had  a  distinct  secondary 
democratic  influence.  It  was  the  easiest  and  most  common 
way  for  the  poorest  and  lowest  to  rise  to  the  very  highest  place 
in  life.  Within  the  social  form  birth  and  wealth  were,  of  course, 
of  great  advantage,  but  poverty  and  even  serfdom  were  no 
absolute  barriers  in  the  way  of  ecclesiastical  advance. 

It  is,  perhaps,  a  mistake  commonly  made  to  attribute  to  the 
Christian  church  from  Nicaea  to  Charlemagne  too  large  a  share 
in  the  formation  of  the  social  forms  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Some 
things  stand  out  plainly.  The  militant  papacy  served  a  most 
useful  function  in  conserving  and  handing  down  many  of  the 
best  traditions  of  Roman  law.  A'U  commentators  on  the  codes 
of  Justinian  and  Theodosius  are  agreed  upon  the  fact  of  Christian 
influence,  although  the  estimates  of  the  amount  of  it  vary  greatly.^ 
On  the  whole,  however,  the  social  forms  of  the  feudal  state  were 
all  well  on  their  way  before  the  organized  hierarchy  became  a 
social  force  of  the  first  importance. 

The  disappearance  of  slavery  was  not  directly  due  to  organized 
Christianity.  Such  protests  as  appeared  against  it  were  isolated 
and  can  all  be  duplicated  from  heathen  sources.  Neither  Paul 
nor  Gregory  the  Great  nor  Leo  III  thought  of  abolishing  slavery. 
It  became,  however,  under  advancing  humanitarian  ideas  and 
with  the  decreased  supply  from  war,  an  unprofitable  economic 
form,  and  disappeared  in  fact  long  before  it  disappeared  from 

•  CJ.  Troplong,  R.  Th.:  "De  I'lnfluence  du  Christianisme  sur  le  Droit 
Civil  des  Romains,"  2d  ed.,  1885. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    277 

codes  of  law  or  of  morals.*  It  was  too  expensive  and  wasteful 
a  system.^  The  rise  of  serfdom  is  usually  traced  to  the  Roman 
"  colonies,"  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  relations  between  patron 
and  client  seem  very  early  to  have  produced  in  the  great  estates 
(Latifundia)  a  full-fledged  feudalism  long  before  the  northern 
invasions.  So  that  the  influence  of  the  Germanic  invasions 
and  customs  seems  usually  to  have  been  much  overestimated. 
Feudalism  was  in  fact  quite  as  much  a  demand  that  the  tenant 
have  secure  possession  as  long  as  he  fulfilled  his  obligations, 
as  an  attempt  to  secure  fixed  labor  by  tying  the  laborer  to  the 
soil.  It  was  a  protest  against  rack-renting,  or  the  driving  of 
the  cultivators  off  the  soil,  as  has  happened  among  the  crofters 
of  Scotland  or  the  truck  gardeners  in  the  neighborhood  of 
London. 

Save  only  as  Christianity  acted  generally  in  the  softened 
customs  of  life,  it  had  little  to  do  with  the  rise  of  feudalism. 

'  The  only  fairly  good  history  of  slavery  in  English  is  J.  K.  Ingram's 
expansion  of  his  article,  "Slavery,"  in  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  9th  ed., 
vol.  XXII,  1887,  pp.  129-177;  in  book  form,  "History  of  Slavery  and  Serf- 
dom," London,  1895.  The  most  elaborate  and  exhaustive  work  is  Wallon, 
H.  A.:  "Histoire  de  TEsclavage  dans  I'Antiquite,"  3  vols.,  2d  ed.,  Paris, 
1879,  particularly  see  vol.  Ill,  pp.  296-443.  Blair,  Wm.:  "Inquiry  into 
the  State  of  Slavery  Among  the  Romans,  from  the  Earliest  Period  to  the 
Establishment  of  the  Lombards  in  Italy,"  Edinburgh,  1833,  has  much 
useful  reference,  but  misses  the  economic  meaning.  Fustel  de  Coulanges, 
N.  D.:  "Recherches  sur  quelques  Problemes  d'Histoire,"  Paris,  1885,  is 
a  suggestive  book.  Serfdom  in  England  is  noticed  in  Stubbs,  "Con- 
stitutional History  of  England,"  1874-1878.  In  the  bonds  of  a  theory  but 
highly  instructive  are  Letourneau's  (C.  J.  M.)  series  on  "L'Evolution  de 
le  Morale,"  1887;  "L'Evolution  de  la  Propriety,"  1889  (English  translation, 
London,  1892);  and  "L'Evolution  de  I'Esclavage,"  1897.  Although  he 
deals  with  the  later  phases,  we  have  found  most  suggestive  of  all  Sugenheim, 
Samuel:  "Geschichte  der  Aufhebung  der  Leibeigenschaft  und  Horigkeit 
in  Europa,"  St.  Petersburg,  1861.  Biot's  (E.  C.)  "De  I'abolition  de  I'Escla- 
vage ancien  en  Occident,"  Paris,  1840,  we  have  not  seen.  Cf.  also  Lar- 
roque,  Patrice:  "De  I'Esclavage  chez  les  Nationes  Chretiens,"  1864;  Yano- 
ski,  Jean:  "De  1' Abolition  de  I'Esclavage  Ancien  au  Moyen  Age  et  de  sa 
Transformation  en  Servitude  de  la  Glfebe,"   i860,    particularly   chap.    II, 

PP-  33-75- 

»  Cf.  Adam  Smith's  "WeaUh  of  Nations,"  III,  2,  pp.  427-440,  of  "World 

Classics,"  ed.,  1904. 


278  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  papal  State  and  the  monasteries  became  great  slave  and  serf- 
holders. 

In  many  indirect  ways,  of  course,  the  church  affected  slavery. 
It  was  probably  early  regarded  as  meritorious  to  free  slaves,  a 
tradition  inherited  from  Roman  ethical  teachers.  Moreover, 
under  certain  conditions  a  slave  could  secure  freedom  by  be- 
coming a  monk  or  priest.  The  church  building  became  the 
asylum  to  which  the  slave  could  flee  as  the  temple  or  grove 
of  Roman  life  had  been,  and  he  could  wait  there  until  the 
priest  had  pled  with  the  owner.  The  slave  was  also  theo- 
retically a  full-fledged  soul,  with  the  rights  of  manhood  or 
womanhood  in  a  way  no  pagan  philosophy  had  in  practice 
taught. 

The  Roman  law  shows  from  Trajan  on  a  steady  improvement 
of  the  slave's  position  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  From  being  abso- 
lutely a  chattel  of  the  owner  he  came  to  enjoy  legal  rights  of 
large  significance.  He  shared  in  the  Roman  State's  interest  in 
its  own  poorer  classes,^  but  the  process  was  greatly  hastened  by 
the  democracy  of  the  communion-table  and  by  the  trend  of  even 
ascetic  morality. 

The  value  set  upon  the  person  as  a  person  increased.^  In 
the  same  way  the  new  hierarchy  took  the  place  in  the  Frankish 
kingdom  which  the  religious  principle  had  in  the  formation  of 
old  Rome,'  and  undoubtedly  moulded  the  ever-increasing  legal 
protection  flung  about  the  slave,  rendering  his  labor  econom- 
ically ever  more  unprofitable  until  he  was  caught  in  serfdom 
and  the  wage  system,  as  being  more  economical  for  the  employ- 
ing class. 

The  church  fathers  had  almost  without  exception  accepted 
slavery  as  founded  in  the  natural  state  of  things.  Augustine 
saw  in  it  a  direct  outcome  of  sin,  and  this  conception,  born  partly 

'  C/.  Jhering,  R.  ivon:  "Der  Geist  des  romischen  Rechts,"  ed.,  1852, 
part  2,  pp.  239-267. 

*  C/.  Gibbon's  "Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire"  (Bury's  ed., 
1898),  vol.  IV,  pp.  470-476. 

*  Cf.  Jhering,  R.  von:  "Der  Geist  des  romischen  Rechts,"  ed.,  1852, 
part  I,  pp.  256-281. 


THE  MILITANT  PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    279 

of  Aristotle,  partly  of  dualism,  prevented  the  organized  church 
from  taking  any  stand  against  slavery  per  se.  But  from  Chrysos- 
tom  and  Ambrose  on,  both  in  the  East  and  West,  the  pulpit 
enforced  the  equality  of  all  men  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  dictated 
conditions  for  the  slave  which  had  they  been  enforced  would 
have  made  his  labor  highly  unprofitable.^ 

The  Germanic  tribes  accepted,  on  the  whole,  the  social 
arrangements  of  the  later  Roman  Empire,  with,  of  course, 
modifications  due  to  the  economic  situation.  In  fact,  both 
religious  and  social  forms  seem  to  have  profoundly  suffered 
during  the  time  called,  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  the  "  Volker- 
wandering"  or  Germanic  invasion.  The  period  of  ecclesiastical 
reconstruction  and  missionary  effort  introduced  the  Roman- 
Greek  civilization  founded  upon  the  formulated  law  of  Justinian 
and  Theodosius,  and  thus  the  way  was  made  ready  for  the  feudal 
Middle  Ages. 

The  period  is  one  of  long  incubation,  but  is  neither  so  dark 
nor  so  reactionary  as  has  been  commonly  represented. 

When  once  more  the  human  spirit  awoke  to  a  realizing  self- 
consciousness,  it  discovered  the  fact  that  it  was  now  not  a 
question  of  a  small  class  but  of  the  race.  The  national  democ- 
racy of  the  Old  and  the  race  democracy  of  the  New  Testaments 
are  not  the  only  factors  in  this  reawakening.  All  through  the 
period  from  Gregory  I  to  Charlemagne,  Aristotle  and  Cicero  were 
still  at  work,  and  the  ancient  philosophy  and  science  were  kept 
alive  both  in  the  cloisters  and  among  the  Mahometans.  But 
the  Christian  church  was  the  popular  even  if  very  inefficient 
teacher.  It  is  quite  useless  to  attempt  to  depreciate  her  services 
in  the  tone  of  Yves  Guyot.^  The  barbarism  and  darkness  of 
this  period  were  not  her  fault.  They  sprang  from  the  giving 
way  of  the  social  structure  under  the  weight  of  warlike  impact 
from  the  north.  The  social  structure  was  rotten  before  the 
Christian  church  had  power,  and  the  northern  invasion  would 

'  Cf.  Chrysostom,  Epist.  ad  Eph.  IV  :  and  Horn.  15:3. 
^  Etude  sur  les  doctrines  sociales  du  Christianisme  (Guyot   et  Lacroix), 
1873,  and  new  ed.,  1903. 


28o  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

have  been  far  more  destructive  of  pagan  law  and  culture  had 
not  the  Christianized  Papal  church  stood  as  mediator  between 
two  levels  of  culture  and  mitigated  in  a  hundred  ways  the 
severity  of  the  invasion. 

Slowly  but  steadily  the  hierarchy  became  by  processes  of 
absorption  and  adjustment  the  almost  perfect  expression  of  the 
conglomerate  religious  life  of  the  various  national  units  that  now 
rise  on  the  ruins  of  Roman  might.  For  one  thousand  years 
(400-1453)  the  Eastern  church  stayed  the  tide  of  Mahometan 
invasion,  and  bound  together  the  life  of  the  races  to  which  she 
gave  the  only  real  unity  they  had.  The  Western  church  carried 
on  her  mission  of  culture  and  national  unification  with  astound- 
ing vigor  and  enthusiasm.  It  must  always  be  remembered, 
both  by  friend  and  foe,  that  neither  the  Eastern  nor  Western 
churches  were  the  Christianity  of  the  synoptic  Gospels,  nor  even 
of  John  and  Paul.  Whatever  may  be  our  estimate  of  the 
elements  that  enter  in,  monasticism,  Neoplatonism,  oriental 
mysticism,  etc.,  whether  we  regard  them  as  obnoxious  intrusions 
or  as  justified  additions  under  the  providential  guidance  of  the 
promised  Spirit,  we  must  as  historians  take  account  of  them 
and  trace  them  to  their  sources  as  well  as  estimate  their  influ- 
ence on  the  total  culture.  It  is  amazing  that  any  man  should 
really  seek  to  explain  the  ethical  ideals  of  the  militant  papal 
church  from  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament  alone.  The 
papal  church  is  herself  wiser  and  more  historical  than  that. 
She  claims  the  inward  authority  of  an  infallible  guidance 
progressively  unfolding  the  truth  according  to  her  needs. 
From  age  to  age  she  expects  the  same  authority  to  guide 
her  with  equally  infallible  wisdom  amid  the  future  complica- 
tions. 

The  logical  modem  Protestant  has  rejected  all  infallible 
guidance.  He  accepts  unreservedly  the  relative  character  of  all 
knowledge.  All  absolute  truth  is  in  the  region  of  faith  and 
hope.  For  him  the  period  could  hardly  have  been  otherwise 
than  it  was,  seeing  that  it  had  as  its  religious  guides  such  very 
imperfect  and  yet  such  nobly  imperfect  ecclesiastics,  whose  ideals 


THE  MILITANT   PAPACY  AND  ITS  ETHICS    281 

were  the  product  of  an  historic  synthesis  which  faith  calls 
providential,  but  which  none  the  less  combined  many  elements 
whose  weakness  we  now  easily  discover  and  whose  limitations 
were  definite  and  marked. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS 

I.  Definition  of  Scholasticism  and  Its  Beginnings — II.  Constructive  Scho- 
lasticism—Ill. Critical  Scholasticism— IV.  Mystical  Scholasticism. 

I.      THE  ETHICS  OF   SCHOLASTICISM 

The  definition  of  scholasticism  for  our  purpose  is  not  difficult 
to  make.  It  was  essentially  the  attempt  to  rationalize  the  grow- 
ing experiences  of  the  race  within  the  limits  of  a  system  which, 
it  was  assumed,  was  closed.  This  closed  system  was  the  un- 
organized teaching  of  the  culture-bearing  church.  She  came 
to  the  Western  world  with  the  ethics  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  the  ethics  of  Plato  and  the  Orient,  of  Aristotle  and 
the  later  Hellenism.  All  alike  were  accepted  by  her  on  the  basis 
of  tradition  and  fulfilled  function.  She  in  her  turn  gave  them 
to  the  world  of  western  Europe  in  the  name  of  divine  authority, 
and  claimed  for  herself  the  right  of  final  decision  in  all  matters 
of  ethical  controversy.  The  innumerable  contradictions  within 
this  conglomerate  of  systems  she  was  altogether  too  busy  to  see. 
The  supposed  basis  was  her  divine  authority.  What  the  faithful 
said  or  taught  was  final.  The  Fathers  and  the  councils  are  ever 
on  the  lips  of  Gregory  and  Isidore. 

In  point  of  fact  the  system  was  one  vast  convenient  compro- 
mise. The  high  religious  culture  of  Judaism,  with  its  lofty 
ethics  culminating  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  Paul,  was  as 
much  beyond  the  average  comprehension  as  were  the  fine  and 
subtile  intellectual  and  artistic  exactitudes  reached  by  Greece  at 
her  best.  The  thorough-going  metaphysical  systems  of  the 
Orient,  with  their  pessimism  and  passivity,  were  equally  beyond 
the  rude  north,  and  were  quite  impossible  teachings  in  the  midst 
of  her  stern  struggle  with  nature  and  life. 

282 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  283 

From  all  this  past  the  hierarchy  took  elements  which  she 
needed  for  her  purpose;  she  came  bearing  gifts  from  Egypt, 
Persia,  Greece,  Rome,  and  Judea,  but  supposed  that  all  came 
from  one  Christian  source  and  that  the  message  she  brought 
with  her  had  a  single  inspiration.  For  her  practical  purposes 
Aristotle  and  Plato,  speaking  with  the  voice  of  Augustine  or 
Athanasius,  were  as  divinely  inspired  as  Amos  or  Paul.  She 
adapted  as  best  she  could  the  various  messages  to  the  nations 
she  was  trying  to  train.  For  the  work  and  services  of  the  church 
we  should  all  be  thankful,  while  yet  remembering  that  she  was 
only  one  agent  of  culture  among  many  and  that  the  child  who 
really  learns  is  largely  self-taught. 

From  the  time  of  Charlemagne  onward  the  organization  of 
life  takes  another  step  forward.  With  the  so-called  "conver- 
sion" of  the  Saxons  the  nominal  subjection  of  the  north  to 
southern  culture  was  completed.  The  child  became  a  youth. 
It  is  quite  unhistorical  to  think  of  the  Middle  Ages  as  "dark" 
or  as  a  fearful  fall  from  the  heights  of  Hellenistic  attainment. 
In  those  ages  of  intense  activity  the  foundations  were  being  laid 
in  song  and  art,  in  language  and  in  law,  in  logic  and  religion  for 
that  certainly  larger  and  we  hope  fairer  temple  that  is  yet  to 
crown  the  world's  acropolis. 

Alcuin  was  no  scholastic;  that  is  to  say,  he  had  no  deliberate 
purpose  to  rationalize  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  culture  he 
highly  prized  and  profoundly  appropriated.  He  is  one  of  the 
greatest  products  of  the  unquestioning  acceptance  by  the  Western 
and  northern  races  of  the  culture  brought  from  the  south. 

But  even  in  the  time  of  Alcuin  the  signs  of  a  coming  indepen- 
dence are  not  wholly  lacking. 

The  influence  of  authority  has  its  wholesome  limits.  We  all 
enter  life  under  authority.  The  child  must  obey.  Its  life  de- 
pends in  a  thousand  cases  upon  a  prompt  and  unquestioning 
obedience  to  an  experience  which,  however  faulty,  is  far  superior 
to  the  child's.  The  Roman  hierarchy  demanded  this  unques- 
tioning obedience.  Her  voice  was  God's  voice.  And  she  was 
so  vastly  superior  to  the  untrained  north  that  she  received,  if  not 


284  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

a  perfect  obedience,  at  least  a  nominal  submission  of  a  very 
child-like  character.  The  intelligent  child,  however,  soon 
grows  unconsciously  restless  under  authority,  and  the  wise 
parent  or  teacher  hails  with  joy  the  tokens  of  coming  maturity 
and  patiently  and  steadily  prepares  the  growing  mind  for  its 
autonomous  activity.  Less  wise  teachers  fret  and  worry  because 
their  wisdom  is  not  accepted  as  unquestioningly  as  of  old,  and 
wonder  only  how  they  may  hold  in  permanent  dependence  those 
whom  they  sincerely  but  most  mistakenly  love. 

Among  the  less  wise  teachers  was  the  Roman  hierarchy.  Her 
enormous  property  interests,  her  political  power,  her  very  place 
as  teacher  and  leader  betrayed  her  into  the  vain  attempt  to 
permanently  hold  the  growing  world  in  subjection  to  her  claim 
to  be  the  one  infallible  voice  of  God. 

She  based  her  claim  on  her  cosmopolitan  character,  her  an- 
tiquity, and  the  evident  superiority  of  her  culture.  The  real  de- 
votion of  her  sons  and  daughters  gave  her  unique  authority  over 
all  classes  of  men  and  in  the  whole  Western  world.  In  times  of 
great  strain  she  had  succeeded  in  holding  her  world  together, 
and  men  looked  to  her  for  relief  and  comfort  under  the  tensions 
and  hardships  of  the  increasing  complexity  of  life.  The  con- 
ceptions in  which  she  did  her  work  had  proved  themselves  useful 
for  certain  purposes  of  human  conduct  in  the  past.  The  ethics 
that  had  become  traditional  with  her  were  no  arbitrary  collection 
of  maxims.  They  were,  like  all  our  conceptions,  the  result  of 
an  age-long  selective  process. 

But  that  process  was  uncritical  and  relatively  unreflective. 
Even  to-day  men  shrink  from  nothing  so  much  as  from  ethical 
reflection,  if  it  be  truly  radical  and  thorough-going.  To  question 
the  fundamental  conceptions  is  to  at  least  threaten  them  with 
destruction,  and  for  most  men,  however  really  intelligent,  there 

i   is  a  closed  system— it  may  be  the  State  or  the  creed  or  the  family 
—within  whose  bounds  they  are  ready  to  rationalize,  but  whose 

-    bounds  are  for  them  fixed  and  held  sacred  from  all  impious 
scrutiny. 

The  first  signs  of  restlessness  were,  of  course,  when  the  Roman 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  285 

claims  interfered  with  immediate  and  pressing  purpose.  This 
friction  is  first  manifest  upon  the  pohtical  field,  where  the  inter- 
ests of  the  hierarchy  soon  began  to  conflict  with  the  rising 
national  feeling.  And  it  has  always  happened  that  when  the 
hierarchy  has  challenged  national  feeling  she  has  suffered  her 
most  disastrous  defeats. 

In  the  age  of  Charlemagne,  however,  it  was  still  a  strength  to 
national  purpose  to  work  with  the  hierarchy  under  the  strong 
sense  of  her  spiritual  and  ethical  supremacy,  and  tnis  supremacy 
was  as  unquestioned  as  the  multiplication  table.  It  was  as- 
sumed that  she  was  the  infallible  teacher  and  that  what  she 
taught  was  a  self-consistent  system.  We  all  move  in  some 
system  we  inherit.  Most  men  assume  the  present  social  order 
to  be  permanent,  a  system  of  "law  and  order"  within  whose 
limits  all  "good  men"  think,  just  as  the  Roman  hierarchy's 
system  asserted  herself  as  the  pillar  of  a  social  order  in  which  all 
"good  men"  had  to  live.  The  men  of  the  Middle  Ages  all 
assumed  as  an  unquestionable  fact  the  supreme  authority  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  papal  power,  and  that  even  though  on  every 
hand  were  the  palpable  failures  of  the  authority  to  achieve  its 
ethical  and  spiritual  purpose  (corrupt  priesthood  and  stained 
monastery  life). 

Few  of  us  have  the  surplus  intellectual  energy  to  do  our  own 
thinking  on  any  but  an  exceedingly  constricted  field.  Most  of 
life  we  take  on  authority.  Life  is  too  short  to  regard  every 
question  as  open  for  discussion  each  day.  The  men  of  the 
ninth  century  had  a  tense  and  absorbing  struggle  for  mere  life. 
It  is  most  wonderful  what  they  actually  did.  The  old  slave 
world  was  transformed  into  a  relatively  ordered  feudalism. 
Barbarism  gave  place  to  culture  and  civilization.  Art  again 
began  to  express  a  new  world  of  longing  and  inspiration.  It  is 
little  wonder  that  the  claims  of  the  church  which  played  a  part 
so  important  in  the  transformation  went  almost  unchallenged 
everywhere. 

The  preparatory  stage  for  the  great  attempt  at  intellectual  re- 
organization of  the  world's  thought  within  the  limits  of  a  closed 


286  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

system  was  marked  by  some  of  the  most  interesting  phenomena 
in  human  history.  The  student  of  the  ethics  of  Christianity 
cannot  pass  them  by  without  seeking  in  some  way  to  relate  them 
to  the  ethical  process  which  is  his  immediate  interest.  The  age 
of  Charlemagne  and  the  years  that  intervene  between  him  and 
Gregory  VII  ^  have  been  drawn  in  very  dark  colors,-  and  it  would 
not  be  easy  to  refute  in  detail  the  many  serious  charges  that  can 
be  made  against  that  age. 

The  leadership  of  both  Church  and  State  after  Hadrian  and 
Charlemagne  had  passed  from  the  stage  leaves  much  to  be 
desired.  Weak,  bad  kings  and  popes  follow  one  another  in 
weary  succession.  Ignorance  and  superstition  mark  both  people 
and  clergy.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  evidence  for  special 
darkness  and  dissoluteness  is  weighed,  as  in  so  many  other  cases, 
the  mind  hesitates.  It  is  so  exceedingly  hard  to  get  objective 
criteria  by  which  to  judge;  and  so  often  the  discontent  and  com- 
plaints are  a  sign  of  a  rising  moral  standard  on  the  part  of  the 
critics  rather  than  of  an  actual  lower  moral  life  in  the  age  thus 
rebuked.  Personally  the  author  doubts  whether  in  the  main 
the  tenth  century  was  not  rather  better  off  than  the  eighth  or 
ninth. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Mahometanism  reached  its  wellnigh 
widest  European  boundary.  The  forward  movement  that  led 
to  the  capture  of  Constantinople  (1453)  was  offset  by  the 
gradual  driving  back  of  the  Saracene  invasion  of  Spain,  culminat- 

'  For  this  period,  besides  the  chapters  in  the  standard  church  histories  of 
Neander,  Gieseler,  Schaff,  Miiller,  see  Reuter,  N.:  "Geschichte  der 
religiosen  Aufklarung  im  Mittelalter,"  2  vols.,  Berlin,  1875-1877. — Bax- 
mann,  R.:  "Die  Politik  der  Piipste  von  Gregor  I  bis  Gregor  VII,"  2  vols., 
Elberfeld,  1868-1869.— Ranke,  Leopold:  "Geschichte  der  Papste  (often 
translated  into  English;  also  in  the  Bohn  Library). — Robinson,  "History 
of  Western  Europe,"  1903.— Taylor,  Henry  Osborn:  "The  Classical 
Heritage  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  New  York,  1901. — Adams,  George  B.: 
"Civilization  During  the  Middle  Ages,"  New  York,  1900. — Mombcrt,  J.  I.: 
"A  History  of  Charles  the  Great,"  London,  1888.— Bryce,  James:  "The 
Holy  Roman  Empire,"  1871,  new  ed..  New  York,  1904. 

*  As  by  Draper  in  his  "History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  in 
Europe,"  vol.  I,  pp.  274-283,  4th  ed. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  287 

ing  in  1492.  The  feudal  system  hardened  into  its  classic  phase, 
with  the  Emperor  or  the  Pope  as  chief  claimant  for  the  logical 
climax  of  the  system.  The  Western  church  lost  steadily  its 
feeling  for  and  its  contact  with  the  Eastern  church,  and  sought 
its  strength  rather  to  the  north  and  west;  while  Byzantianism 
stiffened  into  a  hard,  cold  dogmatism  with  but  little  ethical  life 
or  power. 

The  Roman  church,  re-enforced  by  the  possessions  granted 
by  Charlemagne,  and  led  by  active  even  though  often  worldly 
minded  bishops,  asserted  herself  even  under  weak,  bad  popes 
as  the  centre  of  the  world's  Western  unity.  Spain  conformed 
gradually.  The  Prankish  Empire  was  fastened  by  bonds  that 
held  her  substantially  until  1907  to  papal  rehgious  dominion. 
The  centre  of  interest  was  ritual  and  not  dogmatic.  Alcuin 
and  Charlemagne  might  have  stirred  up  a  struggle  over  picture 
and  image  worship  such  as  distracted  the  Greek  church,  but 
the  Carlovingian  books  ^  made  no  real  impression  upon  a  popu- 
lation that  had  made  up  its  mind  already. 

The  strife  over  adoptianism  was  like  Gottschalk's  attempted 
revival  of  extreme  Augustinianism,  a  really  foreign  intrusion. 
The  age  had  not  begun  its  work  of  mental  reconstruction.  It 
was  still  working  with  the  tools  in  hand. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  estimate  the  work  done  in  Charlemagne's 
time  to  revive  learning  and  to  inspire  to  thought.  A  triumphant 
hierarchy  under  the  strong  sway  of  Gregory  VII  did  not  pre- 
serve to  us  the  literature  of  criticism,  but  it  is  amazing  to  find 

*  The  second  council  of  Nicaea,  claiming  to  be  ecumenical  (787),  had 
condemned  those  refusing  to  venerate  (venerare)  images,  and  this  was  done 
under  the  direct  inspiration  of  Hadrian.  In  the  name  of  Charlemagne, 
and  undoubtedly  in  his  spirit,  an  opus  Carolinum  was  sent  as  a  reply  to 
the  Pope  in  which  the  worship  of  images  was  condemned.  A  synod  at 
Frankfort  a.M.  (794)  sustained  this  protest,  but  Hadrian's  reply  was  a 
politic  yet  firm  reiteration  of  the  attitude  of  787.  Moreover,  the  protest 
was  in  some  measure  uninstructed.  The  distinction  between  Xarpe/a  and 
npoa-Kijvrjffis  had  been  taken  over  in  point  of  fact  by  Rome,  only,  unfortu- 
nately, the  average  man  did  not  know  the  difference  between  veneration  and 
adoration.  See  Hefele,  "  Conciliengeschichte,"  III  :  416  _//.;  Baxmann, 
"Politik  der  Papste,"  I  :  297. 


288  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

the  free  simple  spirit  that  moved  a  man  hke  Claudius,  Bishop  of 
Turin.'  In  his  reversion  to  Augustine  he  did  more  than  simply 
take  his  dogmatic  system,  but  seems,  from  the  imperfect  frag- 
ments of  his  works  that  remain  to  us,  to  have  accepted  primitive 
Christianity  on  the  basis  of  a  pure  spiritual  metaphysical  mono- 
theism. God  is  all  in  all,  and  to  find  in  him  the  absolute  is 
redemption.  The  risen  Christ  is  the  real  basis  for  the  religious 
life,  not  the  human  and  passing  phenomenal  appearances. 
Jesus  is  given  his  character  as  divine  man  by  the  Father.^  He 
is  the  head  of  his  church,  the  anointed.^  And  by  his  enemies 
Claudius  was  accused  of  Arianism  and  Nestorianism,  against 
which  charges  he  defended  himself  in  an  apology,  now  lost  to 
us,  and  in  his  commentary  to  Galatians.* 

The  main  ethical  interest,  however,  attaches  to  his  thorough- 
going rejection  of  images  and  crosses,  and  even  though  the 
Synod  of  Frankfort  had  permitted  them  for  instruction,  he 
turned  them  all  out  of  the  churches,  and  defends  himself  against 
Jonas  and  Dungalus  on  Scriptural  grounds,  in  a  work  also,  alas, 
lost  to  us.  He  also  rejected  all  work-righteousness,  and  following 
Augustine  makes  an  imparted  divine  grace  man's  only  hope  of 
salvation.     He,  in  fact,  accepted  Augustine  as  his  great  mas- 

»  Claudius,  born  in  Spain  about  the  second  half  of  the  eighth  century, 
pupil  of  Bishop  Felix  of  Urgel,  Bishop  of  Turin  by  the  appointment  of 
Louis  the  Pious,  who  maintained  him  there  all  his  life.  He  died  some 
time  before  832.  C/.  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  104,  cols.  609-616;  "Notitia 
historica  in  Claudium." 

2  In  describing  the  throne  of  Solomon  in  "  QucEStiones  XXX  super  libros 
regum,Liher  III"  (commenting  on  I  Kings  10  :  18), Claudius  says:  "Thronus 
eburneus  sternam  judicis  potestatem  auro  divinitatis  fulgentem,  quam 
Dominicus  homo  a  Patre  accepit,  figuram  gestasse  non  dubium  est." 
(MPL,  104,  758  D.) 

'  Omnes  quippe  unctos  ejus  chrismate  recte  Christos  possumus  dicere. 
Quod  tamen  totum  cum  suo  capite  corpus,  unus  est  Christus."  ("  Quacst. 
XXX,"  lib.  I,  MPL,  104,  col.  645  A). 

♦In  a  fragment  of  a  commentary  to  Galatians  he  says:  "Quia  enim 
et  Filii  et  Patris  una  est  operatio:  et  ut  scias  quia  Deus  est  Christus,  a 
quo  illc  est  factus  apostolus,  diligenter  adverte  quod  ante  nominaverit 
Filium  quam  Patrem,  contra  calumnias  Arianorum."  (Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.," 
tom.  104,  col.  845  C-D.) 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  289 

ter,*  the  "Pen  of  the  Trinity,"  and  went  under  his  direction  to 
Holy  Scripture  for  his  doctrine. 

There  is  no  direct  evidence,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  that 
Bishop  Claudius  was  the  founder  of  the  Waldensian  church,  but 
it  is  not  a  Httle  remarkable  that  so  strong  an  Augustinian  and 
Pauline  type  of  Christianity  should  have  maintained  itself  in  the 
Piedmontese  valleys  so  directly  under  the  influence  of  Claudius 
of  Turin. 

For  the  rest,  his  teaching  is  strongly  influenced  by  the  Mora- 
lium  of  Gregory  I,  and  one  may  distinctly  trace  the  threefold 
exegesis,  the  historical,  the  allegorical,  and  the  moral,  by  which 
Kings  and  Leviticus  are  made  to  convey  Augustinian  and  Pauline 
ethics.  These  ethical  teachings  are  warm,  personal,  and  loving 
in  character,  with  the  virtutes  activcB  in  the  foreground.  At  the 
same  time  Claudius  is  neither  a  forerunner  intellectually  of 
scholasticism  nor  religiously  of  the  Reformation,  but  a  fine  and 
refreshing  reminder  that  even  when  superstition  and  ignorance 
lay  heavy  on  men  there  were  bright  rays  of  light  on  strong 
men's  paths. 

Agobaud,  or  Agobard  of  Lyons,^  also  fought  image-worship 
and  superstitions,  such  as  judicial  combat  and  trial  by  fire  and 
water.  He  remained  in  the  simpler  type  of  teaching  illustrated 
by  Claudius,  and,  like  him,  as  a  theologian  largely  contented 
himself  with  exposition  and  collection  of  past  opinions.  But  he 
introduces  us  to  one  serious  and  insufficiently  studied  chapter 
in  the  history  of  Charlemagne's  time  and  the  subsequent  century, 
namely,  the  influence  upon  thought  of  Saracen  and  Jewish 
scholarship. 

*  "Amantissimus  Domini  sanctissimus  Augustlnus,  calamus  Trinitatis, 
lingua  Spiritus  sancti,  terrenus  homo,  sed  coelestis  angelus,  in  quaestionibus 
solvendis  acutus,  in  revincendis  haereticis  circumspectus,  in  explicandis 
Scripturis  canonicis  cautus."     (Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  104,  cols.  927-928.) 

'  Agobardus  episcopus  Lugdunensis  was  of  Gallic  parents  but  born  in 
Spain,  779,  and  came  to  Lyons  under  Leidrad,  the  archbishop,  became  his 
successor,  and  died  840  or  841.  Cf.  Migne,  '*  Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  104,  cols.  9-12, 
and  A.  Hauck,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  I,  1896,  pp. 
246-248,  English  translation  in  the  new  Schaff-Herzog,  I,  1908,  p.  89. 


290  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Agobard  wrote  much  against  the  Jews.^  And  when  the  really 
Christian  student  takes  up  his  chief  work  against  them,  "De 
Judaicis  Superstitionibus,"  he  begins  under  Agobard's  guidance 
a  saddening  review  of  the  hatred  and  bigotry  that  has  stained 
official  and  unofficial  Christian  history  from  early  times.  Ago- 
bard calls  attention  to  the  hard  and  cruel  things  he  gathers  from 
the  fathers,  beginning  with  Hilarius  and  going  down  through 
the  list,  Jerome,  Ambrose,  etc.,  and  then  he  takes  up  the  coun- 
cils from  Laodicea,^  etc.,  and  then  with  the  weird  exegesis  whose 
methods  are  not  yet  extinct,  he  proves  how  Jesus  and  Paul  teach 
us  to  hate  and  condemn  with  all  untruth  and  lack  of  charity 
those  who  rejected  what  the  guileless  Agobard  called  Chris- 
tianity. 

From  his  pages  it  is  impossible  to  form  any  opinion  of  the 
actual  influence  of  Judaism  upon  Christian  thought.  That  it 
was  considerable  one  may  see  from  the  place  that  polemic  against 
Judaism  has  from  Gregory  I  onward.  Agobard  accuses  the 
Jews  of  httle  except  rejection  of  Roman  Catholic  dogma,  and 
of  teaching  that  God  has  hands  and  eyes  and  ears,  etc.,^  and  that 
they  had  another  conception  of  the  world's  creation  and  main- 
tenance,* and  that  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  and  the  law  of 
Moses  date  from  before  creation.  Agobard  was  opposed  to 
several  grave  superstitions  like  trial  by  fire  and  water  and  magic 
against  hail,^  but  it  is  vain  to  go  to  him  expecting  superstition 

'  "Liber  de  Insolentia  Judseorum."  "  Epistola  de  Judaicis  Superstitioni- 
bus." "  Consultatio  de  baptismo  Judaicorum  mancipiorum."  "  Epistola  De 
cavenda  societate  Judaica."  "  Epistola  ad  proceres  palatii  contra  pncceptum 
impium  de  baptismo  Judaicorum  mancipiorum."  Cf.  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.," 
tom.  104,  cols.  70-114;    174-178,  etc. 

*  The  council  of  Laodicea  of  uncertain  date.  See  for  the  canons  against 
the  Jews,  the  37th  and  38th.  Cf.  Hefele,  C.  J.:  "Conciliengeschichte," 
2d  ed.,  Freiburg,  vol.  I,  1873,  pp.  746-777.  English  translation,  Edin- 
burgh, vol.  II,  1876,  pp.  295-325. 

'"Dicunt  denique  Deum  suum  esse  corporcum,  et  corporeis  linia- 
mentis  per  membra  distinctum,  et  alia  quidem  parte  ilium  audire  ut  nos, 
etc."     ("  De  Judaicis  Superstitionibus,"  X  :  i.     (MPL,  CIV,  86  D.) 

nhid.,  X:i. 

*  Sec  his  polemic,  "  De  Grandine  et  Tonitribus,"  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  tom. 
104,  col.  147. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  291 

as  such  to  be  condemned;  it  is  only  superstitions  without  any 
official  sanction  that  he  condemns.  Whether  the  Jews  and 
Saracens  were  really  less  superstitious  than  the  world  about 
them  the  writer  has  not  been  able  to  decide  after  taking  some 
pains  to  find  out/  But  they  had  another  set  of  superstitions, 
and  any  thoughtful  man  can  hardly  reject  some  one  else's  super- 
stitions without  some  inquiry  as  to  the  basis  of  his  own. 

That  they  were  a  disturbing  factor,  awakening  in  men  dis- 
turbing doubts,  we  see  from  the  pages  of  Agobard's  attacks  and 
from  the  constant  repetition  of  the  church  canons  forbidding 
Christians  to  eat  or  drink  or  intermarry  with  them.  They  were 
dreaded  even  more  than  heretics,^  who  had  some  common 
ground  with  Christians,  but  the  Jews  had  no  truth  at  all. 

In  his  controversy  with  Fredigis  of  Tours  ^  it  is  hard  to  see 
how  in  any  important  particular  he  in  any  way  differed  from  his 
antagonist.  Both  accepted  without  any  reservation  the  absolute 
authority  of  Scripture,  church,  and  tradition,  without  any  seem- 
ing consciousness  of  possible  contradictions.  The  assumption 
was  the  one  constantly  made  by  all  parties  that  human  intelli- 
gence and  the  divine  authority  could  only  clash  in  cases  of  innate 
moral  depravity.  The  sense  of  tribal  unity,  the  overpowering 
need  for  unquestioning  maintenance  of  the  communal  authority, 
on  which  politically  the  life  of  a  nation  or  group  has  so  often 
depended,  was  transferred  to  the  religious  field.  Only  "bad" 
men  would  weaken  the  authority  of  the  religious  bond  by  sug- 
gesting their  own  thoughts  in  opposition.  It  was  "virtue"  to 
think  as  the  church  thought,  or  rather  to  so  bury  the  religious 
life  in  rite,  ceremony,  and  superstitious  acceptance  of  miracles 
that  there  was  no  time  or  strength  for  thought. 

*  See  art.,  "Superstition,"  by  Joseph  Jacobs,  in  "Jewish  Encyclopedia," 
vol.  XI,  1905,  pp.  597-601,  and  fuller  literature  in  Giidemann,  M. :  "Ge- 
schichte  des  Erziehungswesens  und  der  Cultur  der  abendlandischen  Juden," 
3  vols.,  Vienna,  1880-1888. 

^  "  Juda^orum  autem  ex  toto  mentire,  ex  toto  blasphemare  Dominum  et 
Deum  nostrum  Jesum  Christum  et  Ecclesiam  ejus,"  "De  Judaicis  Super- 
stitionibus,"  IX.      (Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  104,  col.  86  B.) 

'  CJ.  Renter:   "Geschichte  der  Aufklarung,"  I  :  i  :  10,  pp.  36-41. 


292  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  political  life  was  torn  by  the  quarrels  and  violence  of  the 
children  and  grandchildren  of  Charlemagne  and  Louis  the 
Pious.  The  feudal  aristocracy,  with  customary  patriotism,  took 
this  occasion,  of  course,  to  strengthen  their  own  holdings  and 
advance  their  fortunes.  Of  the  life  of  the  common  people  it  is 
hard  to  even  form  an  idea,  but  the  condition  from  several  signs 
seems,  though  very  low,  not  to  have  been  made  much  worse  by  the 
dynastic  struggles.  For  one  thing  the  feudal  lords  were  strong  in 
proportion  as  they  could  put  men  into  the  field  as  soldiers  and 
maintain  them  by  well-tilled  fields,  so  population  seems  to  have 
increased,  barbarism  was  slowly  supplanted  by  a  rude  civiliza- 
tion, the  incursions  of  the  Saracens,  the  Normans,  and  to  the  east 
the  Wends,  still  made  life  on  the  borders  hard  and  uncertain, 
but  within,  even  at  the  height  of  the  dynasty  disputes,  relative 
order  was  maintained  by  the  feudal  lords  and  the  churchly 
bishops.  Yet  it  is  vain  to  look  for  original  contributions  to  a 
theory  of  Christian  ethics,  and  the  intellectual  energy  was  not 
mainly  spent  in  that  direction. 

Even  the  unfortunate  monk  Gottschalk's  *  quarrel  with  his 
day  over  an  extreme  theory  of  predestination  represents  no  con- 
scious break  with  Scripture,  the  church,  and  tradition  as  giving 
a  closed  system  within  which  men  must  think,  but  only  the  in- 
sistence upon  interpreting  them  all  in  the  light  of  one  principle, 
borrowed,  it  is  true,  from  Augustine,  but  which  is  not  really 
Pauline,  and  which  the  church  had  quite  naturally  found  it 
impossible  to  use.  Her  method  of  enforcing  unity  was  the 
primitive  one,  no  longer  fashionable  in  theology  but  still  accepted 


'  Gottschalk  the  Monk  was  the  son  of  a  Count  Beno,  and  as  a  mere 
youth  was  forced  for  some  reason  into  a  monastery.  He  maintained  to 
the  last  his  heresy  of  a  twofold  predestination  based  on  Augustine  and 
Paul.  His  chief  enemies  were  Hinkmar  of  Rheims,  Hrabanus  Maurus,  and 
Johannes  Scotus  Erigena.  But  his  teaching  also  found  powerful  friends  in 
Ratrammus  of  Corbie,  Prudentius  of  Troyes,  Remigius  of  Lyons,  and 
others.  They  were  not  strong  enough,  however,  to  save  him,  and  he  died 
in  a  monastery  prison  after  twenty  years  of  confinement.  For  full  literature, 
see  the  article  by  A.  Freystedt,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie," 
VII,  1899  pp.  39-40. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  293 

as  wholesome  in  other  fields  where  more  vital  interests  are  sup- 
posed to  be  at  stake. 

The  court  of  Charles  the  Bald  was  not  on  the  level  with  that  of 
Charlemagne,  nor  would  it  be  historical  to  claim  for  either  of 
them  tolerance  in  the  modern  sense  of  that  word,  but  both  were 
willing  within  the  limits  of  the  accepted  system  to  hear  and  en- 
courage free  speech,  and  both  felt  the  need  of  culture  for  the 
mass  of  men  as  well  as  for  the  select  few. 

From  843  (Treaty  of  Verdun)  the  Frankish  kingdom,  with 
its  semi-Latin  Romance  tongue,  began  to  separate  in  speech  and 
culture  from  the  Eastfranks,  or  those  who  spoke  "the  people's 
tongue,"  i.  e.,  "Deutsch."  The  more  this  was  the  case  the 
more  need  was  there  for  a  basis  of  unity  removed  from  the  polit- 
ical chance,  and  the  Roman  cultus  grew  in  importance  in  men's 
eyes  as  they  saw  the  danger  of  the  pohtically  torn  social  state. 
Its  tongue  was  Latin,  and  the  educated  clerical  world  spoke  this 
language  everywhere,  and  so  bound  the  world  together  in 
culture  in  an  extraordinary  degree.  Alcuin  was  an  Englishman; 
Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  was  born  in  Ireland.  Anselm  was 
Piedmontese  and  English  Archbishop.  Yet  all  could  write  and 
be  read  and  understood  by  the  world  of  letters  everywhere. 
This  gave  to  the  church  that  cosmopolitanism  which  is  still  the 
chiefest  charm  of  the  Roman  communion  and  not  a  little  of  her 
strength. 

Such  a  group  of  men  as  Hinkmar  of  Rheims,  Lupus,  Usuardus 
Ratrammus,  Prudentius  of  Troyes,  and  Johannes  Scotus 
Erigena  shows  what  high  capacity  and  learning  could  be  gathered 
together  even  in  the  ninth  century,  and  the  practical  work  of 
Bishop  Anskar^  reveals  the  fact  that  the  church  was  still  earnestly 
conscious  of  her  missionary  and  cultural  obligation.  This  was 
her  real  ethical  life.     It  was  her  social  service  and  not  her  strug- 


'  Archbishop  of  Hamburg  about  831-865.  See  Hauck,  "Kirchen- 
geschichte  Deutschlands,"  2d  vol.,  pp.  617^.,  1890.  Anskar  was  the  father 
of  Danish  Christianity.  Born  about  801,  he  accompanied  Harold  back 
from  the  "Reichstag"  at  Mainz,  and  after  his  deposition  undertook  missions 
to  Sweden  and  then  became  Archbishop  of  Hamburg. 


294  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

gles  over  the  question  of  whether  Mary  suffered  birth  pangs  or 
not '  that  gave  her  place  and  power.  And  already  she  had 
awakened  the  spirit  that  demands  a  reason  for  a  world  of  which 
the  religious  spirit  insists  upon  postulating  reasonableness. 

II.      CONSTRUCTIVE   SCHOLASTICISM 

The  era  of  constructive  scholasticism  coincides  with  the  need 
of  a  rational  and  unified  view  of  the  world  on  the  part  of  an 
awakening  intelligence.  The  place  of  honor  in  this  process  is 
usually  given  to  Anselm  (1033-1109),  but  in  point  of  fact  we 
must  go  back  to  the  court  of  Charles  the  Bald  for  the  real 
founder  of  scholasticism,  and  examine  the  work  of  Johannei, 
Scotus  Erigena?    Christlieb  has  refused  to  recognize  him,  it  is 

'  It  is  hard  to  resist  the  impression  that  the  unnatural  suppression  and 
distortion  of  the  sexual  life  in  monastery  and  cloister  is  in  large  part  re- 
sponsible for  the  constant  morbid  inquiries  with  regard  to  the  birth  of  our 
Lord. 

^  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena,  it  is  now  admitted,  was  born  in  Ireland, 
and  probably  somewhere  about  820,  although  the  years  of  both  birth  and 
death  are  conjectural.  He  came  to  the  court  of  Charles  the  Bald,  and  by 
his  scholarship  and  knowledge  of  Greek,  as  well  as  by  his  humor — if  William 
of  Malmesbury  is  to  be  trusted — gained  the  constant  support  of  Charles. 
After  Charles's  death  the  opposition  of  the  clergy  and  his  condemnation  by  the 
councils  and  a  pope  may  have  driven  him  from  France.  But  the  story 
that  he  was  murdered  by  his  own  pupils  in  England,  whither  he  had  been 
called  by  Alfred  the  Great,  is  doubtful.  His  great  work  is  "De  divisione 
naturae"  (German  translation  by  Ludwig  Noack,  1870,  said  to  be  good); 
and  important  for  its  understanding  is  his  translation  of  the  Pseudo- 
areopagite  and  the  Scholia  of  Maximus  the  Confessor  to  Gregory  of  Nazian- 
zus.  His  work  on  Predestination  is  also  useful.  For  our  purposes  the 
fourth  book  of  "De  divisione  naturae"  is  the  most  important  of  his  writings. 
His  collected  works  by  H.  J.  Floss,  in  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  122  (1853), 
where  also  all  that  is  known  of  his  life,  together  with  an  ingenious  sug- 
gestion with  regard  to  the  same,  is  given.  (See  "Provencia,"  p.  19.)  Of 
the  abundant  literature  there  may  be  mentioned  besides  Ueberweg-Hcinze 
and  the  standard  histories  of  philosophy:  Staudenmaier,  F.  A.:  "Johannes 
Scotus  Erigena  und  die  Wissenschaft  seiner  Zeit,"  Frankfort,  1834;  "Christ- 
lieb Th.  Lebcn  und  Lehre  des  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena,"  Gotha,  i860; 
Huber,  Johannes:  "Johannes  Scotus  Erigena,"  Munich,  1861;  Prantl,  C: 
"Geschichte  dcr  Logik  in  Abendland,"  Leipsic,  1S61,  II,  pp.  20-37; 
Maurice,  F.  D.:  "Moral  and  Metaphysical  Philosophy,"  vol.  I,  part  3, 
pp.  467-501.     New  edition,  London,  1886. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  295 

true,  as  the  father  of  scholasticism  and  mysticism,  to  which  place 
Staudenmaier  had  raised  him. 

In  regard  to  mysticism,  Christlieb  is  undoubtedly  right. 
Erigena  was  in  no  sense  a  mystic,  although  there  are  points  of 
contact  between  his  system  and  mysticism.  But  the  reasons 
Christlieb  gives  for  refusing  to  make  him  a  scholastic  are  surely 
insufficient.  He  set  about  the  same  task,  within  the  same  limits, 
with  the  same  tools  and  the  same  essential  postulates;  nor  did 
he,  in  point  of  fact,  reach  very  different  results  from  the  later 
men.  He  is  the  author  of  the  oft-quoted  phrase  which  almost 
defines  the  faith  of  scholasticism.^  Christlieb  says  he  was  free, 
but  how  could  any  one's  speculations  be  really  free  starting  with 
such  a  point  of  view  and  making  the  "regulae,"  or  "rules  of 
faith,"  the  essence  of  religion  in  the  way  Erigena  did? 

He  only  seems  free  in  contrast  with  some  of  the  later  scholas- 
tics, because  he  has  a  somewhat  wider  range  of  authority,  and 
transplanted  Greek  speculation  into  Latin  soil.  But  he  is  not 
really  free,  and  his  interests  are  no  more  metaphysical  than  were 
Anselm's. 

The  usual  definition  of  scholasticism  as  exclusive  interest  in 
dogma  is  too  narrow.  There  are  levels  of  interest  distinctly 
marked.  All,  it  is  true,  sought  to  rationalize  within  the  closed 
dogmatic  system,  but  some  had  the  rational  speculative  interest 
foremost;  such  were  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena,  Anselm,  and 
Abelard;  others  had  the  dogmatic  interest  in  the  foreground, 
and  the  speculative  was  but  dogma's  handmaid,  as  in  the  case 
of  Peter  Lombard,  Albertus  Magnus,  and  Thomas  Aquinas. 
There  is  yet  a  further  division,  where  the  attitude  toward  both 
dogma  and  philosophy  was  so  critical  that  all  rationalization 
was  seen  to  be  impossible,  as  was  the  case  with  Duns  Scotus 
and  the  Nominalists.    They  remained  scholastics  because  they 

1  "  Quid  est  aliud  de  philosophia  tractare,  nisi  verjE  religionis,  qua 
summa  et  principalis  omnium  rerum  causa,  Deus,  et  humiliter  colitur,  et 
rationabiliter  investigatur,  regulas  exponere?  Conficitur  inde,  veram 
esse  philosophiam  veram  religionem,  conversimque  veram  religionem  esse 
veram  philosophiam."  ("Liber  de  Praedestinatione,"  cap.  I,  §  i,  Migne, 
"Pat.  Lat.,"tom.  122,  cols.  357-358-) 


296  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

bowed  to  authority,  but  they  unwittingly  heralded  the  bank- 
ruptcy of  scholasticism. 

Before  entering  upon  the  examination  of  scholasticism,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  whole  school  is  exceedingly  un- 
fruitful for  our  subject.  Ethics  on  the  basis  of  authority  becomes 
a  mere  legal  casuistry.  Ethics  was  handed  over  to  the  confes- 
sional, and  was  dealt  with  in  the  distressing  books  of  penitence,^ 
where  the  practical  purpose  of  church  discipline,  of  reformation 
of  the  sinner,  and  the  preservation  of  the  peace  mingle  with 
other  and  lower  motives,  as  the  exaltation  of  the  clergy,  the  pro- 
tection of  property  and  class  privileges,  and  the  maintenance  of 
a  humble  frame  of  mind  among  those  whom  the  church  gov- 
erned. 

And  yet  ethics  could  not  be  wholly  neglected  even  by  the  most 
speculative  and  the  most  metaphysical;  and  the  type  of  ethical 
thinking  is  determined  by  the  emphasis  in  the  interest  of  the 
writer.  When,  in  turn,  we  come  to  the  mystic  scholasticism,  we 
find  feeling  taking  the  place  of  thought  and  giving  us  another 
ethical  ideal  that  in  its  logic  displaces  scholasticism  as  thoroughly 
as  the  nominalist  logic. 

The  system  of  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  was  primarily  meta- 
physical. He  enters  upon  his  subject  by  giving  us  a  fourfold 
division  of  all  things,  into  the  Uncreated  who  creates — /.  e.,  God. 
The  Created  that  creates — /'.  e.,  the  world  of  ideas — these  are  the 
causcB  primordiales  and  give  rise  to  the  complexity  of  created 

*  "  Libri  pxnitentiales."  These  were  books  of  penance  introduced 
with  English  culture,  and  bearing  the  names — probably  without  warrant 
in  the  circulated  form — of  Beda,  Egbert,  Theodore  of  Canterbury,  and 
many  others.  These  were  followed  by  Roman  Libri  pcenitentiales,  and 
so  there  arose  a  considerable  literature  of  no  small  importance  for  the  history 
of  conduct  and  culture,  although  they  must  be  used  with  care.  One  does 
not  go  to  books  of  pathology  to  get  the  statistics  of  a  nation's  health.  The 
literature  is  made  accessible  by  Wasserschleben  (F.  W.  H.),  whose  "Die 
Bussordnungen  der  abendlilndischen  Kirchc,"  Halle,  1851,  and  whose 
edition  of  "Reginonis  .  .  .  libri  duo  de  Synodalibus  causis  et  disciplinis 
Erclcsiasticis  .  .  .  adnotationcm  duplicam  adjecit  "  (Lcipsic,  1840),  seem 
to  be  simply  exploited  by  the  other  authors  the  writer  has  consulted,  and 
without  much  advance  upon  his  results. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  297 

things  as  over  against  the  absolute  unity  of  God.  These  go 
forth  from  God,  and  are,  of  course,  modifications  of  Plato's 
ideas  and  forerunners  of  realism's  apparatus  for  the  construction 
of  the  seen  world/  There  is  thirdly  that  which  is  created  and 
cannot  create.  This  is  not,  however,  an  eternal  creation,  like 
the  primordial  ideas  and  the  Logos,  but  is  in  time;^  thus  we 
have  not  only  the  prototypes  but  something  like  the  Trpcori]  v\r] 
of  Aristotle,  only  that  Erigena  rejects  a  formless  matter,  probably 
not  wanting  to  suggest  an  eternal  matter  or  "Urstoff,"  so  that 
the  form  eternal  moulds  the  matter  from  the  beginning  ^  but  in 
time.  And,  lastly,  there  is  the  uncreated  that  does  not  create. 
This  is  the  principle  that  leads  back  from  division  and  the  many, 
where  were  weakness,  sin  and  death,  to  unity,  oneness  with  God, 
and  eternal  life."  This  is  for  Erigena  the  meaning  of  the  in- 
carnation and  the  redemption,  and  it  is  thought  of  in  thoroughly 
Hellenistic-oriental  terms  as  a  swallowing  up  of  the  temporal 
in  the  eternal. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  Erigena  begins  to  have  interest  for  the 
ethical  student,  and  the  type  of  thought  here  involved  reappears 
throughout  theological  history.  God  is  thought  of  as  all  in  all. 
His  conceptions  are  the  realities  of  the  seen  world.  But  how 
then  comes  sin  into  the  world?  Because  man  is  a  secondary 
creative  agent,^  he  is  the  effectual  agent.  And  thus,  as  with 
Origen,  sin  for  God  becomes  negative  and  unreal.  And  the 
exegesis  by  which  the  fall  of  man  and  the  need  of  redemption  is 
explained  is  the  regular  symbolic  exegesis  common  to  many 
schools  of  thought.  Man  is  thus  a  secondary  agent  beside  God, 
responsible  and  free.  Thus  the  double  predestination  of  Gott- 
schalk,  robbing  man  of  his  dignity,  was  abhorrent  to  Erigena. 
It  is  as  an  intelligent  being  and  moral  agent  that  a  man  knows 
himself."  Thus  within  his  sphere  man  is  actually  the  reality, 
and  in  his  consciousness  is  the  substance  of  his  world.  Thus  the 
universe  becomes  a  high  feudal  system  with  man  as  the  inde- 

»  "De  div.  nat.,"  II  :  2;    III  :  1.  '  "De  div.  nat.,"  Ill  :  15. 

»  "De  div.  nat.,"  I  :  56;    I  :  57.  *  "De  div.  nat.,"  II  :  13;  V  :  25. 

*"Dediv.  nat.,"  IV:  9.  e"Dediv.  nat.,"  IV  :  9. 


298  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

pendent  lord  within  his  realm.  And  in  this  sense,  and  no  doubt 
under  the  influence  of  the  new  social  organization  taking  place, 
Erigena  constructs  his  ethical  philosophy  from  the  idealisms  of 
Plato,  Plotinus,  Maximus,  and  Dionysius  the  Areopagite. 

Within  this  admixture  of  pantheistic  idealism  and  political 
and  scholastic  realism,  this  strange  and  difficult  conglomerate  of 
free  speculation  and  slavish  holding  fast  to  traditional  dogma, 
there  is  no  logical  room  for  hell  and  eternal  punishment  any 
more  than  in  Origen;  for  all  things  return  to  God  that  God 
may  be  all  in  all.  Adam  never  was  in  time  in  paradise,^  he  is  the 
idea  of  the  whole  race,  and  so  far  as  time  goes  entered  at  once 
upon  a  sinful  life.  The  fall  is  the  actually  entering  upon  this 
temporal  existence.  Hence  man  was  not  in  a  state  of  virtue, 
but  of  equilibrium,^  and  his  freedom  led  to  the  fall.^  Sin  springs 
from  pride,^  and  came  with  the  first  sleep,  and  indeed  according  to 
Erigena  the  narrative  in  Genesis  is  by  anticipation  of  what  is  yet 
to  come,  and  all  that  is  related  of  Eve,  the  serpent,  etc,  came  after 
the  first  real  sin  which  took  place  in  sleep.^ 

The  sensual  character  of  sin  is  taken  from  Augustine  or  the 
monkish  ethics  of  the  day.  Hence  man  awoke  from  his  life  as 
idea  in  God  to  the  reality  of  sin.  He  never  has  been  really 
sinless,  but  aims  at  a  return  to  God  when  he  will  become  sinless; 
for  the  very  taking  on  of  the  body  is  a  falling  aw^ay  from  God 
and  reality.  The  Neoplatonic  and  dualistic  elements  are  here 
evident,  and  are  really  destructive  of  all  freedom  and  all  ethics. 
But  Erigena  does  not  see  that  nor  does  he  go  the  whole  length  of 
the  system.  So  also  in  this  same  book  *  he  teaches  that  sex  is 
also  a  result  of  the  fall  as  well  as  the  very  possibility  of  temptation 
by  lust.  Sin  is  in  fact  a  relative  removal  by  man  geographically 
or  ideally  from  God,  and  in  no  way  does  Erigena  really  relieve 

'  "De    div.    nat.,"    IV  :  15-19.  =  De  div.  nat.,"  V  :  38. 

*"Confcctum  est,  Deum  primo  homini  talcm  voluntatcm  et  dedisse,  et 
in  eo  earn  condidisse  in  tantum  liberam,  ut  per  earn  posset  peccarc,  posset 
non  peccare."  ("Liber  dc  Prsedestinatione,"  cap.  V  :  9,  Migne,  "Pat. 
Lat.,"  torn.  122,  col.  379  B.) 

*"De    div.    nat.,"    IV  :  6;      IV  :  20-22  . 

*  "  De  div.  nat.,"  IV  :  18-20,  23.  *  "  De  div.  nat.,"  IV  :  20. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  299 

God  of  responsibility  for  sin,  since  he  knows  as  he  creates  his 
effectual  agents  what  must  result.  Erigena's  dialectic  in  no 
way  covers  the  contradiction,  and  this  he  himself  dimly  realizes.^ 
Sin  is  for  Erigena  its  own  punishment,  as  virtue,  i.  e.,  existence 
in  God,  is  its  own  joy.  To  be  away  from  God  is  sin  and  hell,  to 
be  returned  to  God  is  life  and  joy.  Here  we  have  again  Augus- 
tine and  in  some  ways  also  Dionysius. 

The  sacramental  magic  that  so  marks  and  mars  ecclesiastical 
ethics  also  appears,  though  but  casually,  in  Erigena.  In  this 
fourth  book  baptism  takes  away  the  sin  brought  into  the  child 
by  the  very  fact  of  conception.^  The  sin  of  the  world  is  "  The 
common  sin  of  the  whole  world,  i.  e.,  of  human  nature,  of  which 
the  guilt  (reatus)  is  remitted  by  baptism,  and  which  is  itself 
destroyed  at  the  end  of  the  world  in  the  resurrection  of  all."  ^ 
Erigena  is  not  at  one  with  himself  as  to  the  relation  of  God  to 
this  sin  of  the  world. 

As  foreknowledge  with  God  means  also  predestination,  Erigena 
makes  God  ignorant  of  sin,"  and  yet  this  knowledge  thus  denied 
can  only  be  the  active  creative  knowledge,  for  outside  of  God  is 
nothing.  So  as  sin  becomes  a  negative  quantity  it  really  should 
lose  its  character.  But  Erigena  is  too  bound  to  the  vocabulary 
of  the  church  to  go  as  far  as  that.  He  therefore  at  this  point 
writes  in  the  greatest  confusion.  In  fact,  to  the  present  writer 
his  tract,  ''De  Prsedestinatione,"  seems  so  full  of  contradictions 
and  various  mutually  exclusive  points  of  view,  that  it  suggests 
either  a  certain  apologetic  opportunism  or  an  intellectual  care- 
lessness not  otherwise  characteristic  of  the  man. 

With  metaphysical  mysticism  the  system  has,  indeed,  many 

»"De  div.  nat.,"  V  :  36. 

* "  Carnalia  vero  conjugia,  etsi  legitima  sint  et  religiosis  hominibus 
conjuncta,  libidinoso  tamen  illicitoque  motu  carnalis  pruritus  carere  non 
posse  incunctanter  affirmamus.  Non  enim  aliunde  nascentes  in  came 
parvuli,  nisi  inde,  aeternae  mortis  reatum  attrahunt,  quos  solum  catholicae 
Ecclesiae  baptisma  ab  ipso  reatu  liberal. "  ("De  Divisione  Nature," 
liber  IV  :  23.     Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  122,  col.  847  A.) 

'  Comment,  in  Evang.  sec.  Joannem,  "Ecce  Angus  Dei!"  (MPL,  122, 
col.  299  A.) 

*"De  Prcedest,"  XI  :  6-8. 


300  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

points  of  contact.  But  it  is  not  really  essentially  mystical. 
With  the  religious  and  ethical  ideals  that  actually  animate 
mysticism  there  is  almost  no  real  sympathy.  That  he  widely 
and  deeply  influenced  thought  along  that  line  is  due  to  misun- 
derstanding of  him  and  to  the  fact  that  by  his  translation  he 
did  much  to  further  the  school. 

The  logic  of  mysticism  is  a  thorough-going  despondency  with 
regard  to  this  world.  This  Erigena  will  not  allow.  All  is  good 
so  far  as  God  has  made  it,  only  man's  misuse  makes  of  good  an 
evil.  Even  hell  in  God  is  a  good,  and  even  for  a  good  man  not 
an  evil,  for  heaven  and  hell  are  states  of  consciousness,  as  we 
have  seen;  and  as  the  shadow  is  needed  to  see  light  in  its  beauty, 
so  just  punishment  and  pain  but  bring  out  eternal  harmony.' 

Never  is  Erigena  consciously  outside  the  dogmatic  system, 
but  he  deals  broadly  with  it. 

Under  the  protection  of  Charles  the  Bald  a  certain  rather 
wide  latitude  of  opinion  was  permitted.  Dogma  is  never  really 
the  fixed  quantity  that  schools  of  thought  try  to  make  it.  For 
there  will  always  be  as  many  different  interpretations  of  the 
dogmatic  statement  as  there  are  types  of  temperament  and 
levels  of  intellect.  The  unity  of  political  empire  was,  however, 
the  model  on  which  Rome  began  to  steadily  push  for  an  organized 
and  accepted  body  of  philosophic  teachings  giving  unity  to  the 
dogmatic  system. 

Each  dispute  gave  Rome  her  opportunity  to  assert  her  claim 
of  decision  as  a  court  of  last  resort.  To  strengthen  these  claims 
came  very  opportunely  the  forged  Isidorian  Decretals.^    It  is 

'The  best  discussion  of  this  theme  is  in  Ruber's  "Johannes  Scotus 
Erigena,"  pp.  358-428,  where  he  deals  with  the  whole  subject  of  Erigena's 
eschatology  in  what  seems  to  the  writer  the  most  sympathethic  and  objective 
way  possible. 

*  For  the  enormous  literature,  see  Herzog-Hauck's  "  Realencyklopadie," 
"Pseudoisidor,"  by  E.  Seckel,  vol.  XVI,  1905,  pp.  265-307.  Text  in  Migne, 
"Pat.  Lat.,"  vol.  CXXX,  edited  by  Heinr.  Denzinger,  1853.  The  decretals 
arc  the  work  of  a  skilful  and  deliberate  forger  about  the  year  852.  The 
discovery  of  their  forged  character  was  made  certain  by  Blondel  ("Pseudo- 
Isidorus  et  Turrianus  vapulantcs  .  .  .  ,"  Geneva,  1628),  and  convincingly 
proved  by  Paul  Hinschius  ("Decretales  Pseudo-Isidorianae  et  Capitula  An- 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  301 

humiliating  to  realize  how  much  the  progress  of  the  race  has 
been  mingled  with  and  advanced  by  superstition,  ignorance,  and 
fraud,  or  rather  how  the  ideals  that  have  lured  us  on  from 
ethical  conquest  to  ethical  conquest  have  been  wrapt  up  in 
symbols  that  became  the  objects  of  superstition,  have  been 
cherished  because  of  ignorance  of  the  realities  that  masked  them- 
selves as  the  incorporation  of  these  ideals,  and  have  been  ad- 
vanced by  frauds  that  lent  themselves  to  ideal  purposes. 

The  importance  for  the  world's  life  of  some  unification  of  her 
ideals  was  so  overwhelming  that  thoughtful  men  everywhere 
accepted  with  a  most  amazing  lack  of  critical  examination  the 
spiritual  claims  of  Christianity  as  a  religion  and  of  the  papacy 
as  her  official  representative. 

The  bishop's  courts  became  the  rival  of  the  courts  of  the 
empire.  Canon  law  became  not  simply  a  matter  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  but  of  fundamental  importance  in  matters  of  civil 
and  penal  process.^    The  lower  clergy  and  the  monasteries  were 

gilramni  .  .  .  ,"  Leipsic,  1863).  There  is  now  no  reasonable  doubt  about 
the  forged  character  of  the  decretals,  but  they  have  been  the  mainstay  of  the 
papal  claims  for  over  six  centuries.  They  arose  in  the  Prankish  Kingdom, 
and  pretended  simply  ^' canonum  sententias  colligere,  et  uno  in  volumhte 
redigere,  et  de  muUis  unumfacere"  but  in  reality  the  aim  was  to  increase  the 
power  of  the  bishops  as  over  against  the  civil  government  and  to  exalt  the 
papacy.     (MPL,  130,  7  A.) 

'  The  influence  of  law  upon  the  whole  churchly  development  is  far  too 
large  a  subject  for  these  pages.  Yet  the  ethics,  particularly  of  the  Western 
church,  were  deeply  affected  by  the  transition  from  the  conception  of  the 
church  as  a  vehicle  of  the  evangelical  proclamation  to  the  church  as  a 
law-giving  and  law-enforcing  organization.  This  progress  may  be  traced 
in  the  history  of  canonical  law  (6  Kavdiv  avoiTTo\iKbs — 6  /cacc6v  5'  iKK\i]<Tia(TriK6s, 
or  6  Kavdv  ttjs  iKKX-qa-ias).  Canon  meant  at  first  the  regulation  of  the  churchly 
life  by  the  synods.  Then  it  received  the  fuller  meaning  of  all  churchly  direc- 
tions by  the  pope  or  churchly  authority.  The  decrees  of  the  popes  and  the 
decisions  of  councils  form,  from  the  sixth  century  onward,  a  body  of  law  that 
runs  parallel  with  the  civil  law  and  often  covers  the  same  ground.  This  body 
of  canon  law  was  full  of  contradictions,  was,  in  fact,  an  undigested  mass, 
and  various  attempts  were  made  to  collect  and  organize  the  body  of  law 
it  contained.  The  most  noteworthy  attempt  was  made  by  Gratian,  a 
monk  in  the  cloister  St.  Felix  of  Bologna,  between  1139-1142,  the  "Con- 
cordantia  discordantium  canonum,"  which  is  generally  referred  to  as  the 
"Decretum    Gratiani,"    or   simply    "Decreta."     (Herzog-Hauck,    "Real- 


302  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

maintained  in  large  part  by  the  people,  and  they  in  some 
measure  at  least  curbed  the  arrogance  and  stayed  the  injustice  of 
the  ruling  class.  Amidst  all  confusions  the  ritual  and  language 
of  the  Roman  church  loomed  large  as  the  firm  maintainers  of 
a  glorious  tradition  of  conquest  and  suffering,  and  as  the  sure 
symbols  of  more  eternal  triumphs  still  in  the  world  to  come. 
Miracles  were  the  church's  constant  pride  and  boast.  Sacra- 
mental magic  was  woven  into  every  act  of  importance  in  human 
life.  The  babe  was  baptized  to  free  it  by  magic  from  inherited 
guilt;  the  sacrament  was  taken  to  give  magic  strength  in  time  of 
temptation  or  trouble.  The  sign  of  the  cross  kept  witches  and 
devils  at  bay.  The  church  bells  protected  the  village  from  the 
assaults  of  envious  demons;  the  ground  in  which  men  were 
buried  had  to  be  blessed  and  magically  set  apart  for  this  purpose. 
The  priest  in  the  Catholic  church  had  full  control  of  this  magic. 
In  the  churches  lay  the  wonder-working  relics  of  the  saints,  and 
Rome  controlled  the  priests  and  largely  supplied  the  relics,  and 
could  alone  guarantee  the  efficacy  of  the  magic. 

Thus  magic  was  organized,  regulated,  and  in  some  degree 
ethicized  as  well  as  limited.  We  have  seen  how  Agobard 
attacked  the  unofficial  magic  of  his  day  (page  289).  It  became 
sorcery,  witchcraft,  and  of  the  evil  one,  even  when  exactly  the 
same  magic  in  the  hands  of  the  church  was  effective  and  divine. 
With  an  awakening  intelligence  the  thought  of  the  day  had  also 
to  be  organized,  regulated,  and  kept  within  the  bounds  of  creed 
and  dogma.  No  one  did  more  to  advance  this  process  than 
Anselm  *  0}  Canterbury. 

encyklopadie,"  X,  1901,  p.n).  This  collection  has  never  been  officially 
recognized  by  Rome,  but  its  influence  was  simply  past  computation.  It 
has  been  succeeded  by  other  collections,  but  to  no  one  has  papal  authority 
been  given,  and  the  influence  is  therefore  indirect.  See  for  full  literature, 
Schulte,  Johann  Friedrich:  "Beitrag  zur  Gcschichte  des  canonischen 
Rechtes  von  Gratian  bis  auf  Bernhard  von  Paria,"  Wien,  1873;  Bickell, 
Johann  Wilhelm:  "Geschichte  des  Kirchcnrechts,"  Frankfort  a.  M., 
1843-1849  (vol.  I,  in  two  parts,  no  more  published);  Crcdncr,  Karl  .\ugust: 
"Zur  Geschichte  des  Kanons,"  Halle,  1847. 

•Anselm  (1033-1109)  was  born  in  Aosta,  Piedmont,  of  parents  whose 
hopes  for   him   differed   greatly.     His   mother   was   a   pious  and   earnest 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  303 

Into  the  dogmatic  questions  that  cluster  about  Anselm  we 
cannot  go.^  At  two  points,  however,  Anselm  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  whole  ethical  development  of  the  scholastic  period.  In 
his  conception  of  God  and  his  emphasis  upon  the  ethical  ele- 
ments involved  in  the  atonement  he  forced  great  issues  upon  the 
thought  of  the  church. 

His  conception  of  God  is  a  wonderfully  religious  and  lofty 

woman  (see  Rule,  Martin,  "The  Life  and  Times  of  St.  Anselm,"  in  two 
vols.,  London,  1883,  pp.  7-14)  and  his.father's  character  seems  to  have  been 
good,  contrary  to  the  ordinary  tradition.  Both  parents  were  of  high  class, 
with  royal  blood  in  both  lines  of  descent.  But  the  father  cherished,  seem- 
ingly, ambitions  rather  for  the  temporal  than  the  spiritual  powers  of  a 
bishopric  for  his  son.  Anselm  was  in  England  when  William  II,  on  his 
sick-bed,  desired  to  fill  .the  rather  long-vacant  see  of  Canterbury  and  chose 
Anselm.  Under  Anselm  England  came  to  an  understanding  with  Rome 
about  investiture  and  the  feudal  vow.  Anselm  took  the  vow  of  loyalty  to 
William,  but  his  investiture  from  Rome.  For  full  list  of  books,  see  Migne, 
"Pat.  Lat.,"  tomi  158,  159.  There  are  many  editions  of  his  single  works 
"Monologium"  and  "Cur  Deus  Homo?"  English  translations  of  "Pros- 
logium,"  "Monologium,"  and  "Cur  Deus  Homo?"  by  S.  N.  Deane,  Chicago, 
1903  (Open  Court  Publishing  Company).  Hasse,  Fr.  R.:  "Anselm  von  Can- 
terbury," I,  Leben  II,  Lehre  (Leipsic,  1843-1852),  is  still  the  fullest  mine  of 
information  about  Anselm.  Rule's  "Life"  is  full  and  attractively  written 
though  at  times  uncritical.  Remusat,  Chas.  F.  M.  de:  "St.  Anselme  de 
Cantorbery,  Tableau  de  la  Vie  monastique  .  .  .  ,"  Paris,  1853.  See  also 
the  article  by  Kunze,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  I, 
1896,  pp.  562-570,  additional  literature  in  the  article  by  Beckwith  in  the 
New  Schafl-Herzog  "Encyclopaedia,"  vol.  I,  1908,  pp.  188-190,  and  the 
"Vita,"  by  Eadmer,  in  Migne,  torn.  158,  cols.  49-118,  of  which  a  translation 
by  the  dean  of  St.  Paul's  is  mentioned  with  praise  by  Rule,  but  the  writer 
has  not  seen  it. 

»See  Harnack,  A.:  "Dogmengeschichte,"  3d  ed.,  vol.  Ill,  1897,  pp. 
355-359,  English  translation,  vol.  VI,  1899,  pp.  54-79;  Ritschl,  A.: 
" Rechtfertigung  und  Versohnung,"  3d  ed.,  1889,  I,  pp.  31-37;  52-54. 
English  translation  by  J.  S.  Black,  Edinburgh,  1872,  pp.  22-34,  38-40; 
Baur,  Ferdinand  Christian:  "Die  christliche  Lehre  von  der  Versohnung 
.  .  .  ,"  Tubingen,  1838;  Cremer,  H.:  "Der  germanische  Satisfak- 
tionsbegriff  in  der  Versohnungslehre"  ("Theologische  Studien  und  Kriti- 
ken"),  vol.  LXVI,  1893,  pp.  316-345;  the  same:  "Die  Wurzeln  des 
Anselm'schen  Satisfactionsbegriffes"  ("Theologische  Studien  und  Kriti- 
ken,"  vol.  LIII,  1880,  pp.  1-22;)  Reuter,  H.:  "Geschichte  der  religiosen 
Aufklarung  im  Mittelalter,"  2  vols.,  Berlin,  1877;  Hasse,  Fr.  R.:  "Anselm 
von  Canterbury,"  part  2;  "Die  Lehre"  (1852),  and  the  standard  works  on 
theology. 


304  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

creation.  Based  as  it  is  intellectually  upon  Augustine,  and  per- 
vaded by  his  spirit,  it  is  ethically  an  advance  upon  Augustine 
to  whom  God  was  still  far  too  much  thought  of  in  the  terms  of 
an  arbitrary  oriental  monarch  whose  main  attribute  was  power 
(seep.  2^"]  f}.).  In  the  "  Monologium,"  and  still  more  pro- 
nouncedly in  the  ''Proslogium,"  God  is  thought  of  as  the  ethi- 
cally highest*  being,  and  his  reality  is  postulated,  because 
being  is  thus  to  be  identified  with  our  highest  thought  of  it. 
In  spite  of  the  world  of  reflection  that  separates  Kant  from 
Anselm,  there  is  in  this  ethical  interest  in  God  a  common 
bond  between  the  two.  In  the  beautiful  "Proslogium,"  Anselm 
pours  out  his  soul  to  a  loving,  forgiving,  good  God,^  a  God 
who  is  highest  justice  and  highest  mercy. 

And  yet  the  gulf  that  separates  the  God  of  Anselm's  highest 
religious  achievement  from  the  God  and  Father  of  Our  Lord 
Jesus  is  a  great  gulf.  For  Anselm's  thought  of  God  is  built 
upon  the  legal  constitution  of  the  society  of  his  day.^  God  is  the 
incarnation  of  a  most  just  feudal  Over-lord,  who  holds  society 

'"Monologium,"  caput  XVI:  "Sed  palam  est  quia  quodlibet  bonum 
summa  natura  sit,  summe  illud  est.  lUa  igitur  est  summa  essentia,  summa 
vita,  summa  ratio,  summa  salus,  summa  justitia,  summa  sapientia,  summa 
Veritas,  summa  bonitas,  summa  magnitude,  summa  pulchritudo,  summa 
immortalitas,  summa  incorruptibilitas,  summa  immutabilitas,  summa 
beatitudo,  summa  seternitas,  summa  potestas,  summa  unitas;  quod  non  est 
aliud  quam  summe  ens,  summe  vivens:  et  alia  similiter."  (Migne,  "  Pat. 
Lat.,"  torn.  158,  col.  165  C.) 

*  "  Proslogium,"  cap.  I,  V,  IX,  XVII,  XXV.  Very  beautiful  is  the  closing 
invocation  of  this  vi'onderful  meditation,  cap.  XXVI  seq.:  "Deus  meus,  et 
Dominus  meus,  spes  mea,  et  gaudium  cordis  mci,  die  animae  meae,  sic  hoc 
est  gaudium,  de  quo  nobis  dicis  per  Filium  tuum:  Petite,  et  accipietis,  ut 
gaudium  vestrum  sit  plenum,"  etc.,  etc.  (Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  158, 
cols.  241-242.) 

*  Into  the  interesting  question  of  the  origin  of  Anselm's  conceptions  of 
the  satisfaction  theory,  whether  it  is  to  be  sought  in  Roman  or  Germanic 
law,  the  present  writer  is  not  competent  to  go.  But  the  correspondence  of 
Anselm  shows  abundantly  how  the  feudal  system,  with  its  lord  and  over- 
lord and  its  conception  of  ranges  of  personal  dignity,  its  distribution  of 
power,  was  for  Anselm  the  normal  state  of  things  and  affected  all  his 
thoughts.  For  the  controversy,  see  especially  Cremer,  H.:  "Theologische 
Studien  und  Kritiken,"  1880,  pp.  17  I-;    1S93,  pp.  31^345- 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  305 

together  in  loving  but  majestic  sovereignty.  For  Augustine  sin 
was  the  inherited  alienation  of  the  fleshly  life  from  the  source  of 
its  being.  For  Anselm  sin  is  the  infringement  of  the  dignity  of 
the  sovereign  Over-lord,  As  over  against  oriental  despotism, 
both  Roman  and  Germanic  law  exalt  the  place  of  the  group  and 
connect  the  dignity  of  the  ruler  with  its  conservation.  God  is 
for  Anselm  the  Over-lord  who  punishes  to  conserve  the  peace  of 
the  universe  and  maintains  his  dignity  as  Ruler.^  He  must 
punish  and  he  must  reward,^  because  it  inheres  in  the  very 
thought  of  the  highest  Ruler  of  the  Universe  that  he  should  thus 
act. 

This  gives  the  basis,  indeed,  for  an  ethical  conception  of  God, 
and  yet  it  fails,  as  Kant's  conception  fails,  really  to  exhaust  the 
religious  content  of  God  thought  of  not  as  Ruler  but  as  Father. 

In  Anselm's  theory  again  of  the  death  of  Jesus  as  a  satisfaction, 
in  spite  of  its  utterly  untenable  and  legal  character,  there  also 
enters  an  ethical  element.  The  argument  is  built  up  to  conserve 
the  social  values,  justice,  pity,  and  order  in  the  universe.  It  is 
again  an  essential  reading  of  the  social  order  of  that  day  into  the 
wider  experiences  of  all  time,  but  it  is  an  ethical  advance  upon 
the  crude  dualism  that  pervades  the  thought  of  atonement  up  to 
Anselm's  time.  Jesus  does  not  die  to  buy  us  from  the  devil,  and 
the  devil  has  no  just  claim  upon  us.^ 

However  little  successful  the  attempt  was,  Anselm  did  attempt 
to  make  ethical  valuation  supreme  as  the  test  of  dogmatic  truth, 
always,  of  course,  within  the  limits  of  the  closed  system. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  a  really  Protestant  ethics  the  theory 
has  no  value,  for  it  rests  substantially  on  the  conception  of 
works  of  supererogation  (wrought  by  Jesus),  which  not  only 
enable  but  compel  God  to  reward  the  worker,  and  the  only 
element  of  pity  and  love  is  in  making  the  reward  our  redemption, 

'"Proslogium,"  cap.  IX-XI.  "Cur  Deus  Homo,"  lib  I,  cap.  XIII. 
"Meditatio  Super  Mis.,"  §  i. 

*  Harnack  justly  points  out  that  Anselm's  theory  of  the  atonement  is  not 
on  the  basis  of  bearing  punishment,  but  of  giving  reward  to  the  Son  for  that 
which  is  superabundant  merit.     Cf.  "Cur  Deus  Homo,"  lib  II,  cap.  XIX. 

^"Cur  Deus  Homo,"  lib.   I,  cap.   VII. 


3o6  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

lovingly  demanded  by  Jesus  Christ  and  lovingly  granted  by  the 
Father,  which  it  was  quite  within  God's  power  not  to  do.  The 
whole  scheme  rests  upon  utterly  unreal  metaphysical  relations 
between  the  triune  persons,  and  in  point  of  fact  moves  within 
the  limits  of  a  false  legal  conception  of  life  born  of  the  feudal 
system  in  which  social  structure  Anselm  played  a  weighty  part/ 

The  fact  that  under  Gregory  VII  the  dream  of  world  power 
for  the  hierarchy  seemed  near  a  possible  realization  has  a  large 
place  in  the  history.  It  affected  the  religious  and  ethical  devel- 
opment in  the  profoundest  way.  This  dream  had  completely 
taken  the  place  of  the  kingdom-dream  as  that  vision  had  haunted 
the  late  Jewish  and  early  Christian  life.  Even  mystic  scholas- 
ticism, whose  real  interest  was  so  far  away  from  temporal  sover- 
eignty, was,  as  we  shall  see,  not  unaffected. 

But  with  Anselm  the  influence  is  overwhelming.  He  was  a 
monk,  but  his  world  of  thought  is  not  dominated  by  the  crude 
realism  and  particularism  which  marked  the  origins  of  the 
monkish  intrusions.  The  international  character  of  the  hier- 
archy is  seen  in  his  abstract  conception  of  God  as  over  against 
all  national  and  concrete  ideas  of  him.  The  legal  character 
of  the  church  is  marked  in  the  external  and  formal  relations 
postulated  as  being  the  relations  of  God  to  his  universe.  The 
attributes  of  God  are  played  off  against  each  other,  justice 
against  mercy,  dignity  against  love,  power  against  pity,  etc.  So, 
though  Anselm  has  given  us  no  developed  ethics,  it  is  easy  to  see 
along  what  lines  alone  he  could  have  developed  a  system. 

As  the  state,  or  states,  found  in  the  Roman  law  the  basis  for 
a  new  social  reconstruction,  so  the  eager  minds  of  the  scholastic 

*  It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that  the  struggle  of  Anselm  with 
William  II  of  England  compelled  him  to  consider  all  the  relations  of  Church 
to  State.  The  King's  demand  that  the  church  remain  in  his  hands  and 
Anselm's  maintenance  of  Gregory's  VII's  position  against  lay  investiture 
led  to  the  long  quarrel  with  Anselm,  his  twofold  banishment,  and  at  length 
to  the  compromise  which  lasted  so  long  in  English  history.  The  efifect  of 
this  legal  struggle  is  revealed  in  Anselm's  theology.  For  a  good  account, 
see  Hasse,  F.  R.:  "Anselm  von  Canterbury,"  part  i,  Lcben  (1843),  pp. 
235-454- 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  307 

period  turned  to  the  only  systematic  intellectual  tradition  within 
reach,  namely,  the  Organum  of  Aristotle  as  it  had  been  pre- 
served and  handed  down  by  Jewish,  Mahometan  (Arabic),  and 
Byzantine  scholarship.*  Aristotle  and  later  Plato  were  soon  to  be 
accessible  in  the  original  tongues  and  to  assume  their  old  places 
as  the  world's  teachers,  but  Anselm  knew  them  only  in  part. 
Yet  he  moves  wholly  in  this  world  of  conceptual  abstractions, 
whose  overwhelming  usefulness  for  holding  the  world  of  thought 
together  has  so  long  led  men  to  believe,  even  into  our  own  day, 
that  they  have  some  divine  and  independent  source  of  knowledge 
apart  from  experience;  and  so  for  scholasticism,  ancient  and 
modern,  they  become  the  really  concrete  realities  by  which 
experience  is  to  be  judged,  and  are  thought  of  as  existing  before 
and  beyond  all  experience. 

For  all  the  constructive  scholastics,  the  great  system  builders, . 
faith  must  precede  knowledge,  but  faith  is  the  acceptance  oV'~'^=^-i 
statements,  either  dogmatic  or  ethical  or  historical,  as  true,  and 
knowledge  is  weaving  these  statements  together  with  experience 
into  an  intellectually  tenable  system,  i.  e.,  into  a  system  that  will 
not  exhibit  internal  contradictions. 

From  this  point  of  view  ethics,  also,  can  only  be  a  systematic 
treatment  of  revealed  laws  of  action.  Thus  the  canons  and 
ethics  mingle  hopelessly  as  the  process  of  externalization  and 
formalization  proceeds.    The  first  demand  of  the  church  was 

"  So  far  as  the  writer  can  judge — without  having  access  to  the  Arabic  literature 
— all  that  the  Arabic  scholarship  did  was  to  hand  down  the  Greek  literature  in 
somewhat  faulty  form.  Their  own  thought  was  confined  almost  entirely  to  a 
few  fundamental  questions,  and  they  were  bound  by  the  Koran  as  narrowly  as 
Christian  thought  was  by  traditional  dogma.  But  they  wrote  commentaries  on 
Aristotle  (Alkendi,  circa  850;  AKarabi,  circa  950;  Avicenna  [ibn  Sina],  1030; 
Algazel,  HOC,  and  Averroes  [ibn  Roshd],  1200)  and  conserved  something  of  the 
mathematical  and  astronomical  traditson  of  the  past.  With  them  were  associated 
in  the  minds  of  the  scholastics  Jewish  thinkers  like  Avecebron  [ibn  Gebirol], 
about  1050,  the  author  of  "Fons  Vitas,"  and  Moses  Maimonides  (1204). 
Dieterice,  F. :  "  Die  Philosophie  der  Araber  im  neuten  und  Zehnten  Jahrhundert," 
1858-1886;  Prantl:  "Geschichte  der  Logik  im  Abendlande,"  vol.  II,  pp. 
297^.  Good  account  with  full  literature  in  Ueberweg-Heinze:  "Geschichte 
der  Philosophie,"  1905,  part  2,  pp.  234-270  (§§  28-29). 


3o8  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

for  fides  implicita,^  and  the  moral  man  was  expected  to  submit 
absolutely  to  the  authority  of  the  teacher  before  he  could  ration- 
alize his  conduct. 

Moreover,  in  order  not  to  awaken  suspicion,  this  rationaliza- 
tion must  be  within  the  limits  set  by  the  logic  of  the  schools. 
Thus,  for  instance,  Peter  Lombard,^  though  a  pupil  of  Abelard's, 
was  content  to  go  back  to  the  method  of  the  compilers  of  the 
ninth  century,  and  to  collect  the  various  sayings  of  the  fathers 
and  sentences  from  the  Bible,  with  an  attempted  ignoring  of  the 
work  of  the  speculative  teachers,^  that  all  the  various  contra- 
dictions could  be  gotten  rid  of  by  proper  exegesis  of  the  words, 
or  that  where  doubt  still  remained  the  greater  weight  of  au- 
thority was  alone  to  decide  the  matter. 

There  is  therefore  nothing  in  the  great  magister  sententiarum 
that  is  intentionally  new,  and  ethics  was  of  such  secondary 
importance  beside  dogmatics  that  only  in  the  discussion  of  these 
are  ethical  questions  indirectly  touched  upon;  as  in  the  discus- 
sion of  predestination,*  where  Augustine  in  the  conventional 
churchly  interpretation  is  closely  followed,  or  in  the  famous 
discussion  of  the  moral  and  physical  characters  of  angels,^  or 
the  creation  and  fall  of  man,'  or  the  imputation  and  impartation 
of  grace.'    The  ethics  of  the  one  important  ethical  section  of  the 

'For  historical  treatment  of  Fides  implicita,  see  Ritschl,  A.:  "Fides 
implicita.  Eine  Untersuchung  iiber  Kohlerglauben,  Wissen  und  Glauben, 
Glauben  und  Kirche,"  Bonn,  1890;  also  Hoffmann,  Georg:  "Die  Lehre  von 
der  Fides  Implicita  innerhalb  der  katholischen  Kirche,"  Leipsic,  1903.  His 
second  volume:  "Die  Lehre  von  der  Fides  Implicitas  bei  den  Reformatoren," 
Leipsic,  1906,  the  writer  has  not  seen. 

'  Petrus  Lombardus  was  born  of  humble  parentage  in  Lombardy,  somewhere 
about  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  in  the  town  of  Novara,  and  died  about 
1 160.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Abelard's  and  a  distinguished  teacher  in  Paris.  His 
works  are  collected  in  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  191  (where  also  a  short  life  is 
given)  and  192,  cols.  1-964.  Of  the  many  encyclopaedic  articles  the  best  is 
that  by  R.  Seeberg,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "  Realencyklopiidie,"  vol.  XI,  1902,  pp. 
630-642. 

*  "Garruli  ratiocinatores "  (and  the  calm  assurance),  I  :  dis.  4  :  2;  I  :  dis.  a  :  3. 

*  "Scntcnt."  I  :  40-42,  especially  I  :  48  :  1-5. 
'  ".Sentent."  II  :  4-7. 

*  "Sentent.  II  :  19  :  1-16;    II  :  22  :  1-12,  etc.  ^  "Sentent."  II  :  26  :  1-2. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  309 

"Sentences"  *  are  grouped  about  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  the 
four  cardinal  virtues,  and  the  two  tables  of  the  commandments 
in  almost  mechanical  carelessness.  Under  the  head  of  marriage 
as  a  sacrament,  all  concupiscence  is  condemned,  not  indeed  as 
sin,  but  as  evil,  thus  distinguishing  in  the  truly  Hellenistic  spirit 
between  guilt  and  sin.^ 

Constructive  scholasticism  attained  its  greatest  height  in  the 
monumental  works  of  two  great  souls — Albertus  Magnus  and 
his  great  pupil  Thomas  Aquinas.  The  moral  and  intellectual 
greatness  of  these  two  men  will  excite  respect  and  admiration  as 
long  as  learning,  sincerity,  and  character  are  valued  among  men. 
Albertus  Magnus  ^  represents  in  its  full  glory  the  mediaeval 

•  "Sentent."  Ill  :  distinctiones  26-40. 

'  "  Et  nos  dicimus  illam  concupiscentiam  semper  malam  esse,  quia  foeda  est, 
et  poena  peccati;  sed  non  semper  peccatum  est."  "Sentent."  IV,  dis.  31  : 8. 
(MPL,  192,  921  D.) 

'  Albertus  Magnus  was  born  of  noble  family — the  von  Bollstadt — at  Launingen 
in  Swabia,  probably  about  1193,  and  early  became  a  member  of  the  Dominican 
Order.  He  was  used  by  the  order  for  the  reorganization  of  their  methods  of 
teaching,  and  so  lectured  in  Regensburg,  Freiburg,  Strasburg,  Paris,  Hildes- 
heim,  and  Cologne,  where  his  chief  work  lay.  It  was  in  Cologne  and  Paris  that 
Thomas  Aquinas  became  his  pupil,  and  he  outlived  his  favorite  scholar  and 
defended  his  orthodoxy  after  his  death.  He  himself  died  1 280,  after  a  long  and 
nobly  useful  life.  His  works  are  most  numerous,  and  have  been  collected  and 
reprinted  in  Paris  by  Abb^  Auguste  Bourgnet  in  thirty-eight  volumes,  1891-1898, 
vnth  full  reference  to  the  critical  work  done  on  the  life  of  Albert  by  Jac.  Quetif 
and  Jac.  Echard.  These  pages,  however,  refer  to  the  edition  of  Petr.  Jammy, 
21  vols.,  Lyons,  1651,  which,  though  uncritical  and  defective  in  accurate  paging, 
is  the  more  commonly  cited  edition,  and  is  at  the  basis  of  the  Paris  edition.  For 
discussion  of  the  critical  questions,  see  the  Prcemia  to  the  Paris  edition.  The 
sources  of  special  interest  to  the  ethical  student  are  the  "Ten  Books  of  Ethics" 
(Jammy,  tom.  IV,  pp.  1-362),  in  which  Aristotle  is  freely  paraphrased  and 
supplied  with  comments  from  other  writers;  the  "Summa  Theologias"  (Jammy, 
tomi  XVII  and  XVIII);  and  the  "Paradisus  Animae,  sive  Libellus  de  Virtutibus" 
(Jammy,  tom.  XXI),  which  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  ethical  works  of  this 
period,  and  should  be  read  in  connection  with  Albertus's  "Commentary  upon 
Beatum  Dionysium  Areopageticum "  (Jammy,  tom.  XIII,  pp.  1-196).  The 
literature  is  very  large;  for  a  resume  of  it  see  Ueberweg-Heinze,  "  Grundriss  der 
Geschichte  der  Philosophic,"  8th  ed.,  1898,  part  2,  pp.  264-265.  The  life  by 
Sighardt,  J.:  "Albertus  Magnus,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Wissenschaft  nach  den 
Quellen  dargestellt,"  Regensburg,  1857,  is  still  readable,  although  uncritical  and 
indiscriminate.    The  English  translation,  "Albert  the  Great  of  the  Order  of 


3IO  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

thurch  still  fulfilling  her  function  as  authoritative  teacher  of 
western  Europe  along  all  lines.  Never  was  the  power  of  the 
Roman  papacy  more  splendidly  made  manifest  than  under 
Innocent  III;  and  few  men  ever  summed  up  the  learning,  the 
religion,  and  the  nobility  of  their  age's  character  more  completely 
than  did  Albertus  Magnus  that  of  his. 

The  scholastic  faith  that  the  dogmas  and  system  of  the  church 
were  absolutely  in  accord  with  reason  and  knowledge  was  never 
questioned  by  Albertus.  At  the  same  time  these  two  are  separate 
fields  for  many  purposes.  It  is  perfectly  evident  what  Albertus 
really  regarded  as  infallible ;  it  is  not  the  voice  so  much  of  church, 
council,  or  Pope  as  the  general  message  of  culture,  science,  and 
ethics  which  the  church  bears  with  her.  Aristotle  is  Albertus's 
real  teacher  in  matters  of  science.  He  boldly  disputes  with  his 
great  master  about  the  eternity  of  matter  and  the  nature  of  the 
soul,  but  in  logic,  metaphysics,  and  the  natural  sciences,  Aristotle 
is  wellnigh  final.*  In  matters  of  morals  he  trusts  Augustine, 
in  medicine  and  physics  Galen,  Hippocrates,  and  Aristotle. 
He  is,  of  course,  firmly  persuaded  that  between  the  science  of 
Aristotle  and  the  religion  (creed,  dogma)  of  the  church  there 
can  be  no  real  dispute. 

Hence  we  have  an  interesting  twofold  ethics  in  Albertus. 
On  the  one  hand  he  gives  us  an  ethics  that  reflects  in  its  main 
outlines  the  intellectual  and  aristocratic  ethics  of  Aristotle,  but 
little  softened  by  the  reservations  and  comments  of  the  Christian 
Albertus.  The  rejection  of  the  eternity  of  matter,  and  the 
changes  in  Aristotle's  psychology,  which  mark  his  paraphrase  of 
the  ethics,  are  not  fundamental  enough  to  greatly  change  the 
complexion  of  the  whole. 

But  the  later  and  real  ideals  of  the  teaching  church  are  best 
set  forth  in  the  little  book  "Paradisus  Animae,"  which  Albertus 
wrote  late  in  his  life,  and  which  gives  us  the  curious  combination 

Friar-Preachers,"  translated  from  the  French  edition  by  T.  A.  Dixon,  London, 
1876,  the  writer  has  not  seen.     Cf.  also  Hertling,  Gcorg  von:  "Albertus  Magnus, 
Beitrage  zu  seiner  Wiirdigung  .  .  .  Festschrift,"  Cologne,  1880. 
*  "Sent."  II,  dis.  13  :  2. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  311 

of  Aristotle  and  monk,  which  was  made  possible  only  because 
of  the  place  the  philosopher  was  given  in  the  peripatetic  philos- 
ophy, and  whose  conversion  into  a  monk  was  difficult  but  not 
impossible. 

Ethics,  although  a  science,  is  yet  for  Albertus  a  science  of 
practice/  For  the  science  we  have  only  to  follow  Aristotle  as 
he  had  passed  into  the  thought  of  the  church,  but  worked  over 
more  carefully  by  Albertus,  and  really  intelligendy  altered  for 
the  church's  purpose.  As  Albertus  refused  to  confine  reality 
either  to  post  rem  or  in  re  or  ante  rem,  but  regarded  the  universal 
as  first  in  God's  thought  {ante  rem),  then  in  nature  {in  re),  and 
lastly  as  existing  in  our  conception,  or  explanation  {post  rem),  so 
the  final  good  exists  in  God  and  is  to  be  realized  in  personal  life. 
This  realization  of  the  good  is  happiness,  and  happiness  is  the 
highest  good.  The  summum  honum  is  thus  the  fulfilment  of 
function,  and  exists  in  and  for  itself,  as  a  good  in  itself;^  but  this 
is  not  the  case  with  evil,^  for  evil  is  privative,  and  has  no  place  in 
reality  finally. 

Man's  good  appears  in  a  threefold  relation.  There  are  the 
virtues  of  social  citizenship— fourfold  in  character— of  the  home, 
and  the  monastic  virtues."*  That  which  gives  ethics  its  character 
as  over  against  physics  is  man's  freedom.  At  this  point  Albertus 
unwittingly  follows  Aristotle  rather  than  Augustine,  and  in  a 
matter  that  profoundly  affects  his  theology,^  at  the  same  time 
only  as  the  church  herself  had  done  ever  since  Gottschalk,  the 
unhappy  monk,  was  condemned.  Not  only  was  man's  freedom 
dear  to  Albertus  as  giving  man  his  special  likeness  to  God,®  but 
we  are  to  use  it  for  the  mastery  of  the  world  and  ourselves.' 

'  "Et  hoc  modo  bene  consideremus,  quod  moralis  docens  theoretica  est,  et 
moralis  utens  practica,"  Eth.  1:1:4. 

^Eth.  1:3:1.  3  Eth.  1:2:5. 

*  Eth.  1:3:1.  At  this  point  we  notice  the  skilful  adaptation  of  an  essentially 
different  ethics  to  the  contemplative,  ascetic  ideal. 

*  Cf.  "Summa  Theologia,"  I,  tract  15-17  (Jammy,  torn.  XVII). 
8"Paradisus  Animae,"  cap.  XXVI;   "De  Libertate,"  opera,  vol.  XXI,  1651, 

p.  21. 

^  An  interesting  expression  occurs  in  Albert's  discussion  of  vegetables.  He 
remarks  on  his  own  corroboration  of  the  facts  handed  down  on  authority  and 


V 


y 


312  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Nature  is  in  itself  good  and  not  evil/  because  so  far  as  nature 
is  positive  and  has  had  existence  in  God's  thought  it  must  be 
good. 

Man  is  a  social  being,  and  although  Albertus  has  to  do  violence 
to  the  real  Aristotle,  he  is  evidently  quite  unconscious  of  the 
gulf  fixed  between  Augustine,  even  as  modified'  by  churchly 
tradition,  and  the  simple  humanism  of  Aristotle. 
y^,  Y  At  this  point  the  social  note  has  a  place  in  Albertus.  The 
^Ou>^  { civil  good  is  the  highest  good  of  the  individual,^  but  in  point  of 
yT  /  fact  he  makes  no  real  use  of  it,  and  his  ethics  always  remains 
essentially  individualistic  and  even  other-worldly.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  his  theoretically  accepted  relativity  in  ethics,' 
which  is  a  mere  repetition  of  Aristotle's  position,  without  the 
least  intention  of  taking  it  seriously.  The  full  life  is  the  ethical 
life,  but  what  Aristotle  means  by  the  life  of  the  philosopher 
Albertus  takes  as  the  life  of  the  studious  monk.*  He  was,  of 
course,  conscious  of  his  difference  from  the  great  master,  yet 
demanded  freedom  from  the  criticism  of  the  stupid  and  inert 
who  blamed  him  for  following  Aristotle  without  themselves 
reading  the  great  master  to  discover  why  he  taught  as  he  did. 
Such  stupid  ones  were  those  who  killed  Socrates,  and  compelled 
Plato  to  fly,  and  drove  Aristotle  himself  into  exile.' 

And  yet  another  picture  is  presented  when  we  turn  to  the 
theological  Albertus.  He  is  not  himself  aware  of  it.  The 
utter  sincerity  and  nobility  of  his  character  shines  in  his  books 
and  is  testified  to  by  all  who  knew  him.  But  he  was  a  child  of 
the  paganized,  orientalized  organization  which  called  itself  the 
Christian  church,  and  which  still  preserved  some  of  the  choicest 
fruits  of  the  early  Christian  ethical  uplift.  It  is  a  really  beautiful 
ethical  ideal  that  is  unfolded  before  us  in  the  "  Paradisus  Animae." 
It  is  not  the  ideal  of  Jesus.    There  is  no  thought  of  a  kingdom 

says:  " Experimentum  enim  solum  certificat  in  talibus;  eo  quod  lam  de  parlicu- 
laribus  naturis  simile  haberi  nan  potest."     "De  Vegitabilibus,"  VI  :  i. 

'  Elh.  1:2:6. 

*  Eth.  1:1:3  and  13-14.     Cf.  his  translation  of  the  "Politics." 

»Eth.  1:4:1.  «Eth.  1:6:8. 

»  "Politicorum,"  VIII  :  6.     Opera,  vol.  IV. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  313 

of  God  on  earth  in  the  prophetic  sense;  and  the  salvation  of 
the  soul  is  Hellenistic,  not  New  Testament.  Nor  is  it  the  lofty 
aristocratic  ethics  of  Aristotle  or  of  Plato  with  intellectual 
refinement  in  the  foreground;  it  is  the  monkish  ideal  as  that 
conception  of  life  had  been  modified  and  ennobled  by  the  active 
life  of  service  in  northern  Europe. 

If  any  Protestant  critic  is  confounded  by  the  pictures  of  de- 
pravity, ignorance,  and  coarse  materialism  presented  by  Roman 
Catholic  historians  as  common  in  the  monastic  orders,  and 
wonders  how  an  institution  with  such  dark  shadows  over  it 
could  so  long  and  successfully  maintain  itself,  let  him  turn  with 
us  to  the  "Paradisus  Animae"  and  remember  that  hundreds  and 
thousands  literally  left  all  that  ordinarily  makes  life  attractive 
to  devote  themselves  with  more  or  less  success  to  the  ideal  there 
presented. 

The  book  has  forty-two  chapters,^  and  opens  with  a  prologue 
in  which  the  great  difficulty  is  pointed  out  of  distinguishing 
between  virtues  that  look  like  vices  and  natural  virtues  that 
look  like  those  of  grace,^  but  which  deserve  no  eternal  reward. 

Love  is  easily  the  mother  of  all  virtue.^  Hence  ethics  begins 
with  love  to  God  and  love  to  one's  neighbor,^  and  this  love  must 
spring  from  our  sheer  joy  in  holiness,  and  must  not  have  its 
roots  in  any  fear  of  penalty  or  hope  of  reward.  The  delicate 
mind  abominates  the  very  thought  of  loving  God  for  reward,' 
and  so  also  we  keep  the  commandments  from  no  fear  of  punish- 
ment, but  to  purify  our  minds.  We  are  to  love  our  neighbor 
because  we  see  God  in  him;  he  may  be  unloving  and  unlovely, 
but  even  with  our  enemies  we  are  to  rejoice  in  their  joy  and 
sorrow  with  their  tears. 

The  second  chapter  deals  with  humility,  which  springs  from 
a  right  attitude  toward  God,  and  the  second  chapter  of  Philip- 

'  In  Jammy,  torn.  XXI. 

*  "  Virtutes  gratuitae  Prologus." 

'  "  Et  primo  de  charitate,  qus  est  mater  et  ornamentum  omnium  virtutum." 
"Paradisus  anima;  Prologus."  *  Caput  I. 

5  "  Delicata  enim  anima,  quasi  abominatur,  per  modum  commodi  vel  prsmii 
amare  Deum."     Cap.  I  (A). 


314  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

plans  is  the  key-note  of  the  treatment.  The  mind  of  Jesus  is  to 
be  our  mind. 

This  leads  to  the  third  chapter  and  a  treatment  of  obedience. 
Here  the  monastery  conception  comes  fully  into  view.  We  are 
to  obey  our  superiors  as  we  obey  God.  True  obedience  asks 
no  questions  and  never  murmurs.  Albertus  neither  raises  nor 
idiscusses  all  the  difficult  questions  an  absolute  authority  suggests 
V  ^'  Min  the  presence  of  the  ethical  autonomy  on  which  Greek  ethics 
was  based. 

All  the  chapters  have  a  certain  scheme.  The  virtue  is  defined/ 
then  illustrated  in  detail,  often  its  advantages  pointed  out,  the 
methods  of  its  cultivation  given,  the  evidences  of  true  virtue  on 
the  one  side  and  the  false  on  the  other  made  plain.  So  the 
evidence  of  true  patience  ^  is  the  refusal  to  vindicate  one's  self  or 
render  evil  for  evil.  But  a  false  patience  seems  to  endure  while 
really  complaining  and  becomes  bitter.  The  next  three  chap- 
ters are  devoted  to  the  monastery — virtues  of  poverty,  which  is 
the  relinquishing  of  all  for  God's  sake,  not  from  necessity;  of 
chastity,  which  is  purity  of  mind,  and  where  possible  with  this 
the  conservation  of  virginity  and  of  abstinence,  which  is  treated 
of  as  a  virtue  for  God's  sake  and  a  means  to  an  end,  i.  e.,  it 
leads  us  into  the  secret  of  God  and  enables  us  to  hear  his  voice. 

Prudence  and  fortitude  enable  us  to  hold  life  balanced  and 
to  maintain  our  way  amid  all  terrors,  because  God  is  with  us. 
Justice  is  the  Golden  Rule  which  Albertus  insists  must  control 
entirely  and  without  exception  all  our  relations  with  our  fellow- 
men.  Temperance  is  beautifully  defined  as  the  exact  regulation 
of  the  inward  motive  and  the  outward  action — moderation  in 
all  things.  Compassion  is  not  only  for  our  neighbor  in  this  life, 
but  for  those  in  purgatory  for  whom  we  are  to  constantly  pray, 
because  as  God  has  had  compassion  on  us  we  must  pity  all 
who  have  sinned  and  are  suffering.  This  compassion  leads  to 
pity,  which  has  three  forms:  giving,  condoning,  and  works  of 
supererogation.' 

'  Thus  "Paticntia  vera  et  perfecta  est,  cum  aliquis,"  etc.  '  Cap.  IV. 

*"Dando — condonando — supererogando,"  cap.  XIV. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  315 

Albertus  then  discusses  Concord,  Constancy,  Generosity, 
which  is  giving  of  one's  entire  self  to  service  and  is  false  when 
done  for  praise  or  reward;  Truth,  which  is  an  exact  correspond- 
ence between  heart  and  mouth;  Magnaminity,  Faith,  which  is 
very  defectively  defined  as  the  acceptance  as  true  of  the  dogma 
of  the  Trinity  and  the  main  articles  of  the  creed.  Hope  is  the 
expectancy  of  future  felicity  on  the  basis  of  God's  promise,  and 
Fear  is  also  a  virtue  when  regarded  as  due  caution,  and  the  sense 
that  we  may  just  come  short.  Joy  is  to  be  in  God,  and  Sorrow 
is  better  than  joy  and  more  useful.  We  are  mainly  to  sorrow 
for  the  insults  offered  to  God  since  man's  fall,  and  for  this  we 
should  sorrow  with  many  tears.  Gratitude  is  to  mark  our  whole 
life,  which  is  to  be  one  long  expression  of  gratitude  to  God  for 
his  goodness  and  love. 

In  the  discussion  ^  of  Zeal  the  ascetic  conception  of  life  is 
again  prominent;  "sacred  meditations,  fervent  desires,  tears, 
prayers,  vigils,  fasts,  preachings,  confessions,  advice,  doctrine, 
and  good  works  for  the  saving  of  souls"  are  the  evidence  of  real 
zeal.  How  strange  a  note  that  would  be  in  the  Nicomachean 
ethics! 

Liberty  is  defined  in  the  terms  of  Anselm,  who  is  quoted; 
to  sin  is  not  liberty  but  is  slavery.  Free-will  is  God's  gift,  and 
his  evidence  that  he  wants  us  to  be  free  and  like  himself.  But 
passions  and  lusts  are  chains.  We  must  be  free  even  from  the 
desire  to  escape  reproach  or  to  escape  the  yoke.  Religion  is 
defined  in  the  words  of  James,^  and  thus  in  the  discussion  the 
passive  rather  than  the  active  virtues  receive  the  emphasis.  Ma- 
turity and  Simplicity  are  virtues  which,  as  Albertus  views  them 
also  belong  largely  to  the  monastic  ideal.  They  involve  divorce 
from  earthly  things.  So  also  Silence,  Solitude,  and  Contempla- 
tion are  discussed,  and  mean  fixing  the  attention  upon  heavenly 
things  and  not  simply  stupid  dumbness.  Discretion  is  fixing 
the  exact  shades  in  conduct  between  good,  better,  and  best. 
The  Christian  man  will  be  given  to  Congratulation,  which  is 
rejoicing  in  God,  and  will  have  Confidence  in  him.     For  God  is 

1  Caput  XXVI.  «  I  :  27. 


3i6  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

omnipotent  and  faithful,  and  will  never  desert  one  trusting  in 
him. 

The  next  five  chapters  (XXXVII-XLI)  are  again  thoroughly 
monastic  in  their  spirit,  and  deal  with  contempt  of  the  world; 
Maceration  of  the  body  "by  fasts,  vigils,  prayers  (!),  hair-cloth, 
the  discipline,  and  abstinence  from  food  and  drink";  with 
Contrition,  which  is  constant  penitence  for  our  own  and  others' 
sin;  with  Confession,  which  must  be  made  to  a  legitimate  priest; 
and  Penitence,  which  is  really  defined  as  penance.  Then  the 
book  closes  with  a  chapter  upon  Perseverance  in  good  works 
and  in  prayer. 

Here  in  sharp  outline  we  see  the  ideal  that  animated  the 
teaching  church  at  her  best,  as  Albertus  Magnus  strove  to  em- 
body in  the  intellectual  forms  of  Aristotle  the  ascetic  monkish 
morality  of  the  hierarchy.  The  endless  compromises  by  which 
the  result  was  attained  were  not  patent  to  either  himself  or 
Thomas  Aquinas,  whose  ethics  presents  little  advance  upon  his 
great  teacher,  save  in  precision  and  by  elimination;  but  the 
full  and  unreserved  handing  over  of  Aristotle  to  the  learning 
world  was  bound,  in  the  end,  to  compel  men  to  take  a  position 
sic  et  non ! 

The  final  formulation,  of  a  semi-official  character  for  the 
Roman  hierarchy  on  the  field  of  ethics,  is  the  work  of  Albertus 
Magnus's  favorite  pupil,  the  father  of  Roman  Catholic  theology, 
namely  Thomas  Aquinas}  \ 

'  Thomas  of  Aquino  was  born  about  1225  in  the  castle  Roccasicca  of  his 
father,  the  Count  Landulf,  and  died  in  1274  at  the  age  of  fifty  years  (Contra 
Qu^tif).  His  life  was  that  of  the  studious  monk.  At  the  age  of  five  he  was  sent 
to  his  uncle  at  the  Benedictine  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino,  and  while  yet  a  boy 
he  tried  to  enter  the  preaching  order  of  the  Dominicans,  but  was  at  first  hindered 
by  the  family.  He,  however,  after  a  year  or  two  in  confinement,  succeeded  in 
carrying  out  his  plan,  and  the  order  sent  him  to  Cologne,  where  he  studied  under 
Albertus  Magnus  (see  page  309),  whom  he  then  accompanied  to  Paris,  and 
thence  back  to  Cologne.  He  again  appears  in  Paris  as  struggling  for  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  preaching  orders,  and  in  this  struggle  was  successful.  He  worked 
with  Albertus  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  schools  of  learning  controlled  by  the 
T3ominican  Order,  and  reorganized  the  theology  of  the  day  in  his  immortal 
"Summa  Theologian."  His  death  was  a  great  blow  to  his  generation,  and  more 
especially  as  he  left  the  third  part  of  the  "Summa"  incomplete.     The  critical 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  317 

The  Ethics  0}  Thomas  Aquinas.— The  twofold  character  of 
scholastic  ethics  as  we  have  seen  them  so  far  is  only  apparently 
overcome  in  Thomas  Aquinas.  The  exceedingly  skilful  inter- 
weaving of  the  Aristotelian-intellectual  with  the  monkish-ascetic 
or  authoritative-mystic  ethics  cannot  blind  us  to  the  contradic- 
tions such  a  combination  must  involve  us  in.  The  threefold 
division  of  the  virtues  into  theological,  intellectual,  and  moral  * 

life  of  Quetif,  J.,  and  Echard,  J.,  in  "Scriptores  Ordinis  Praedicatorum,"  Paris, 
1719-1721,  2  vols.,  is  still  quoted  as  authoritative  (c/.  Prefatio  to  the  Roman 
edition).  See  also  Roger  Bede:  "Life  and  Labors  of  S.  Thomas  of  Aquin,"  2 
vols.,  London,  1871;  abridged  and  edited  by  Cardinal  Vaughan,  London,  1875. 
For  very  full  references  to  his  life,  see  Ueberweg-Heinze:  "Grundriss  der 
Geschichte  der  Philosophie,"  vol.  II,  1905,  §  30. 

The  sources  for  the  ethical  student  are  mainly  in  the  two  divisions  of  the  second 
part  of  the  "Summa,"  known  as  "Pars  prima  et  Pars  secunda  secundse."  The 
commentary  upon  Aristotle  contains  almost  nothing  that  one  would  dare  to 
place  over  against  the  plain  statements  of  the  "Summa";  and  the  two  types  of 
ethical  thinking — pagan-classical  and  monkish-ascetic — which  exist  to  some 
extent  apart  in  Albertus  Magnus  are  skilfully  woven  together    by   Thomas. 

There  are  many  editions  of  the  complete  works,  but  the  only  critical  edition 
is  not  yet  finished.  "Sancti  Thomae  Aquinatis,  opera  omnia  jussu  impensa  que 
Leonis  XIII,  P.M.  Romae"  (twelve  volumes  have  appeared  up  to  1908).  The 
ethical  portions  of  the  "Summa"  are  complete  in  tomi  VI-X.  A  handy  edition 
of  the  "Summa"  is  that  of  "Abbe  Drioux,"  Paris,  1869,  3d  ed.,  with  French 
translation;  "La  Somma  Theologique  de  Saint  Thomas,"  fifteen  volumes;  the 
Parma  edition  in  twenty-five  volumes  (1852-1872)  is  uncritical,  but  as  the 
only  complete  edition  is  the  one  most  quoted.  A  German  translation  of  the 
"Summa,"  by  Schneider,  Ceslaus  Maria,  has  appeared  under  the  title  "Die 
Katholische  Wahrheit  oder  die  theologische  Summa  deutsch  wiedergegeben," 
twelve  volumes,  Regensburg,  1886-1892.  An  English  compendium  of  the 
"Summa,"  by  E.  O'Donnell,  two  volumes,  Dublin,  1859,  and  Rickaby,  Joseph, 
has  translated  the  principal  portions  of  the  ethics  under  the  title  "Aquinas 
Ethicus,"  two  volumes,  London,  1896.   These  last  three  the  writer  has  not  seen. 

For  the  enormous  literature  reference  must  be  made  to  the  standard  bio- 
graphical articles  or  to  the  ninth  edition  of  Ueberweg-Heinze,  "Grundriss  der 
Geschichte  der  Philosophie." 

For  helps  the  student  will  do  well  to  turn  to  the  "Thomas  Lexikon"  of 
Schiitz,  Ludwig,  2d  ed.,  Paderborn,  1895.  It  is  very  useful  though  far  from 
exhaustive,  and  omits  important  terms.  The  index  to  the  Parma  edition  is 
good.  The  commentary  of  Cardinal  Cajetan  is  published  with  the  "Summa" 
in  the  papal  edition,  as  well  as  with  others,  and  is  an  excellent  help  to  the  study 
of  Thomas's  ethics  as  well  as  his  theology. 

'  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  109,  A.  i,  "Unde  Veritas  non  est  virtus  theologica,  neque 
intellectualis,  sed  moralis."     Ad.  A.  3. 


3i8  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

is  itself  a  compromise  between  evangelical  tradition  and  pagan 
culture,  and  the  clash  of  the  two  ideals  is  never  absent  from  the 
pages  of  the  "Summa."  Almost  the  last  thing  we  can  think  of 
Aristotle  putting  in  the  foreground  of  his  ethics  would  be  the 
crucifixion  of  the  body  and  the  absolute  submission  of  the  mind 
to  external  authority.  What  Aristotle  meant  by  the  contempla- 
tive life  was  a  life  of  ceaseless  curiosity;  what  Aquinas  meant 
by  it  was  a  life  of  devotional  submission.  For  Aristotle  fulfil- 
ment of  function  meant  the  full  development  of  all  human 
powers;  for  Thomas  it  meant  the  abstraction  of  the  mind  from 
the  phantasy  of  the  senses  as  the  perfection  of  highest  mental 
functioning/  which  was  to  be  gained  by  chastity  and  abstinence. 
In  taking  over  the  pagan  culture,  with  its  lofty  humanism, 
Thomas  ignores  what  was  its  chiefest  note,  namely,  the  restless 
and  ceaseless  assertion  of  the  individual  as  an  end  in  himself. 
The  longer  one  studies  Aquinas  the  more  powerfully  does  the 
inherent  incompatibility  of  these  two  ideals  to  live  together  in 
unity  impress  the  student.  All  the  fine  dialectic  and  genuine 
knowledge  and  enthusiasm  of  Thomas  Aquinas  fail  to  produce 
more  than  a  seeming  unity.  For  Albertus  Magnus  the  two 
ideals  existed  more  or  less  consciously  side  by  side,  though  in 
different  spheres.^  With  keener  grasp  of  the  actual  needs  of 
the  hierarchy,  Aquinas  forced  the  religious  and  intellectual 
culture  into  a  union  that  at  bottom  meant  the  complete  control 
of  culture  by  creed  and  dogma.  Not  without  a  measure  of 
truth  have  the  Jesuits  given  to  Thomas  Aquinas  the  place  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  world  of  thought  which  Paul  occupies  in 
the  world  of  post-Reformation  Protestantism. 

'  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  15.  3,  conclusio,  "Respondeo  dicendum  quod  perfectio 
intellectualis  operationis  in  homine  consistit  in  quadam  abstractione  a  sensibilium 
phantasmatibus;  ..." 

*  When  Harnack  says  in  general  of  the  Middle  Ages  ("Lehrbuch  der  Dog- 
mengeschichle,"  vol.  Ill,  3d  ed.,  1897,  p.  334:  "Die  Wissenschaft  war  kirchlich, 
theologisch.  Es  gab  kcine  Laicnwissenschaft");  (English  translation,  VI,  1S99, 
pp.  31-32:  "Science  was  ecclesiastical,  theological.  There  was  no  lay  science," 
he  is  no  doubt  right  within  limits,  but  Jewish  and  Arabic  science  must  not  be 
forgotten,  and  in  Albertus  Magnus  we  have  a  very  near  approach  to  a  lay 
science  on  the  part  of  a  churchman. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  319 

The  skill  with  which  Aquinas  takes  over  the  elements  he 
needs  for  his  structure,  and  twists  and  changes,  utterly  uncon- 
sciously, these  elements  into  the  likeness  of  the  monastery  ideal 
excites  growing  admiration  as  the  work  goes  on  to  the  climax; 
and  this  adaptation  was  possible  only  because  there  were  dis- 
tinctly common  elements  in  the  two  ideals.  Both  are  rooted  in 
a  thoroughly  aristocratic  conception  of  human  society.  Both 
are  distinctly  intellectualistic  in  fundamental  note.  Both  deal 
with  life  in  terms  of  the  small,  highly  organized  group,  and 
finally  both  are  related  to  analogous  metaphysical  conceptions 
clothed  in  physical  and  theological  terms. 

No  one  up  to  the  time  of  Thomas  Aquinas  had  formulated 
with  such  clearness  the  scholastic  method.  It  may  be  called  the 
authoritative-rationalistic  method.  Thomas  does  all  his  think- 
ing within  the  limits  of  a  framework  given  in  past  authoritative 
utterances,*  and  humbly  bows  to  the  supremacy  of  the  central 
hierarchy.  At  the  same  time  the  method  is  really  a  rationalistic 
one,  for  between  the  voices  of  authority  reason  must  decide,  and 
in  the  interpretation  of  the  authority  there  is  again  room  for  the 
individual  reason. 

In  fact  the  assumption  that  revelation  not  only  is  but  must  be 
rational  is  fundamental  to  all  the  culture  that  claimed  Aristotle 
as  its  father.  For  this  reason  the  Scriptures  must  be  treated 
freely  and  as  symbolic  and  mystical  in  order  to  escape  the  patent 
contradictions  and  unethical  positions  there  recorded.  The 
result  is  to  make  human  reason  really  supreme,  for  the  real 
power  hes  not  with  the  giver  but  with  the  interpreter  of  a  law. 

Where,  however,  Aquinas  especially  falls  far  short  of  the 
work  of  Aristotle  in  ethics  is  his  failure  to  realize  the  funda- 

•  The  "Summa"  is  written  in  a  series  of  questions  (quaestiones)  in  which  the 
various  problems  are  set  forth  {Delude  considerandum  est  de,  etc.);  then  they 
are  taken  up  one  by  one,  introduced  by  the  stereotyped  phrase  "Ad  primum, 
secundicm,  etc.,  sic  proceditur,"  with  additional  observations  PrcBterea;  then  the 
opposite  view  is  set  forth,  sed  contra  est,  and  then  there  follows  Thomas's  own 
opinion,  which  he  invariably  introduces  by  the  phrase  "respondeo  dicendmn 
quod,  ad  primum  ad  secundum,"  etc.,  and  after  that  comes  often  a  conclusion, 
conclusio. 


320  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

mentally  empiric  method  of  the  great  master.  For  Aristotle 
ethics  was  the  discovery  of  the  golden  mean  between  extremes, 
and  was  a  science  of  experience  rather  than  of  exactness  in 
abstract  conception.*  The  two  pillars  upon  which  Thomas 
Aquinas  rests  his  structure  are  definition  and  authority.  In 
point  of  fact  the  entire  inadequacy  of  this  method  is  revealed 
in  the  way  the  contemporary  social  morality  is  reflected  in  the 
ethics  of  Aquinas  ^  and  in  the  relative  moral  fruitlessness  of  the 
method.  Slavery  is  condoned  and  the  real  evils  of  the  world 
of  exchange  are  passed  over.  The  acuteness  of  the  discussions 
and  the  wonderfully  full  and  suggestive  argumentation  upon 
disputed  points  should  not  blind  us  to  the  inherent  limitations 
of  the  whole  procedure,  and  the  inevitable  bankruptcy  which 
was  already  indicated  in  the  restlessness  of  scholasticism  itself. 
But  for  the  time  Thomas  was  seemingly  completely  triumphant. 
His  method  became  the  standard  for  all  the  higher  schools,  and 
his  interpretation — or  misinterpretation — of  Aristotle  became 
final  in  Roman  Catholic  theology. 

Why  this  should  be  the  case  rests  upon  reasons  apart  from 
the  real  greatness  of  Thomas  Aquinas  and  the  merits  of  the 
system  itself.  The  hierarchy  had  become  a  legal  organization, 
with  its  own  jurisdiction,  closely  related  to  and  deeply  influencing 
the  legal  system  of  the  various  states.  The  line  of  demarcation 
between  ethics  and  law  had  never  been  sharply  drawn  since  the 
surrender  of  Christianity  to  the  paganism  of  the  empire.  But 
now,  even  more  than  in  an  earlier  age,  it  seemed  essential  that 
ethics  should  be  formulated  as  law. 

This  formulation  Aquinas  carried  through  with  superb  feeling 
for  the  existing  needs  of  the  quasi-political  organization  that 
had  substituted  itself  for  Christianity.  Thus  the  ethics  have 
throughout  a  legal  rather  than  an  evangelical  character.  This 
is  especially  marked  in  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Qs.  58  to  81,  but 
it  colors  the  whole  treatment,  and  that  not  merely  because  of 

•  Eth.  Nic.  A.  I  :  1-15  (SusmUhl's  edition,  18S7),  B.  IX  :  1-3 
»C/.  Maurenbrecher,  W.:  "Thomas  von  Aquino's  Stcllung  zum  Wirtschafts- 
leben  seiner  Zeit,"  Leipsic,  1898,  etc. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  321 

the  legal  method,  but  because  of  the  end  in  view.  What  often 
seems  to  us  dry  and  outworn  defence  of  stupid  conventions  of 
thought  and  feeling  was  in  its  day  a  fresh,  vigorous,  conquering 
force  overcoming  ignorance,  superstition,  and  disorder  in  the 
name  of  an  undoubtedly  higher  culture  and  larger  intellectual 
freedom.  The  weapons  of  one  age  are  often  forged  into  chains 
for  the  next  one.  The  tyranny  of  mere  brute  force  and  posses- 
sion found  in  the  hierarchy  a  rival  for  control  of  the  masses. 
And  scholasticism  was  the  intellectual  and  ethical  preparation 
for  fighting  cohorts  bidding  for  the  people's  obedience  and 
allegiance.  The  struggle  was  no  less  real  because  it  went  on  so 
quietly  and  steadily,  only  now  and  then  rising  to  the  dramatic 
climax  of  a  Canossa  or  Third  Crusade.  How  much  the  hie- 
rarchy actually  did  substitute  law  and  morality  for  personal 
tyranny  and  centralized  political  might  is  seen  in  the  way 
personal  tyranny  flourished  for  a  time  when  the  Reformation 
broke  the  supreme  power  of  the  hierarchy,  and  in  the  way  such 
personal  tyranny  was  compelled  to  compromise  with  the  churchly 
code  of  law  and  morality. 

The  mission  of  culture  to  which  the  preaching  orders  felt 
themselves  called,  the  work  of  educatidnal  reorganization  which 
Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas  so  successfully  carried 
through,  did  indeed  add  strength  to  the  papal  personal  rule,  but 
it  also  purified  and  cleansed  in  very  great  measure,  so  that  in 
the  eyes  of  the  vast  mass  of  men  that  personal  rule  was  justified 
by  the  results.  The  law  is  a  school-master  to  bring  us  into  the 
presence  of  the  larger  freedom,  and  the  legal  character  of  the 
ethics  of  Aquinas  belongs  to  the  very  function  which  its  ethics 
was  to  fulfil. 

An  outline  of  the  ethics  of  Aquinas  is  not  easy.  In  the  first 
place  they  are  interwoven  with  his  whole  theological  system, 
and  in  the  second  place  as  a  positive  system  they  grow  out  of 
the  doubts  and  difficulties  which  Aquinas  so  bravely  and  fully 
faced,  and  yet  into  the  elaborate  discussion  of  those  difficulties 
space  forbids  us  to  go.  The  student  of  ethics  who  begins  with 
"Pars  Secunda  Secundae"  soon  finds  himself  compelled  to  take 


322  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

up  the  primary  discussions  in  "Pars  Prima  Secunda;,"  and  from 
thence  he  will  generally  be  forced  back  to  the  theological  dis- 
cussions of  the  first  part.  The  ethics  may,  however,  be  divided 
into  two  main  discussions. 

I.  The  Theoretical  Ethical  Questions. — These  are  contained 
in  "Pars  Prima  Secundas"  and  the  "Pars  Prima.  We  must 
glance  quickly  at  the  initial  questions  which  must  be  answered 
for  the  sake  of  understanding  the  system  more  fully  worked  out 
in  the  "Secunda  Secundce." 
.<-;*-!,  The  theory  of  knowledge,  as  related  to  ethics,  which  Aquinas 
actually  makes  use  of  is  based  fundamentally  upon  the  postulate 
that  science  (scientia)  deals,  not  with  particulars,  but  with 
causes,  and  that  which  relates  particulars  together.^  For 
j Aquinas  the  syllogism  is  thus  the  means  by  which  the  mind 
reaches  certitude,  because  for  him  freedom  from  inner  contradic- 
tion is  the  test  of  truth.^  So  enormously  important  does  the 
abstract  conception  loom  upon  the  scholastic  horizon  that  one 
pauses  to  ask  why.  Nor  does  the  answer  seem  difficult.  The 
overwhelming  importance  of  concepts  binding  our  world  of 
otherwise  seemingly  unrelated  experiences  together  forced  upon 
the  scholastic  mind  the  conclusion  that  these  concepts  had 
something  quite  superhuman  and  independent  of  all  particular 
human  experience.  Hence  the  vast  importance  of  logic  in  the 
world  of  scholastic  training.^  We  ourselves  often  still  speak 
with  solemn  voice  of  "mathematical  certainty,"  and  forget  how 
completely  mathematics  is  simply  a  science  of  definition  that 
has  proved  highly  useful  and  justified  itself  in  age-long  experi- 
ence. 

The  Aristotelian  world  of  conceptual  structure  was  for 
Aquinas  in  his  struggle  to  organize  a  new  world  of  moral  feeling 
what  mathematics  is  to  the  modern  engineer  organizing  a  new 

•  Cf.  discussion  of  God's  knowledge,  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  14,  A  i. 

»  Cf.  discussion  of  "intellectual  virtues,"  "Summa,"  I  :  II,  Q.  57,  A.  i. 

'  Cf.  Aquinas's  discussion  of  Aristotle's  attitude,  "  Ex  posit  io  in  duo  libris 
posleriorum  analyticorum  Aristotelis,"  44  c.  "Scientia  importat  ccrtitudinem 
cognitionis  per  demonstrationem  adquisitam,"  where,  however,  the  demonstra- 
tion is  not  a  final  reference  to  sensational  experience,  hut  to  mental  consistency. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  323 

world  of  bridges  and  sky-scrapers.  The  "forms"  of  thought 
are  real,  Aquinas  teaches,  but  not  apart  from  the  mind  of  God 
in  which  they  exist/  They  are  therefore  ante  rem  and  in  re, 
existing  before  and  in  the  individuals.  "  In  the  divine  wisdom 
there  are  the  conceptions  (rationes)  of  all  things,  which  we  have 
called  before  'ideas,'  that  is,  pattern  forms  (formas  exemplares) 
existing  in  the  divine  mind."  ^  This  twist  to  Aristotelian  real- 
ism does  not,  however,  lead  Aquinas  to  a  pure  Platonism,  for 
these  forms  have  no  existence  apart  from  God's  mind. 

All  ethical  certainty  depends,  therefore,  upon  our  contact  with 
the  mind  of  God,  and  realizing  in  our  experience  the  eternal 
ideas.  We  need  not  go  into  the  elaborate  classification  of 
forms,  as  essential  and  accidental,  as  absolute  and  relative, 
because  they  have  little  place  in  his  ethics. 

So  also  the  theology  only  interests  here  as  it  affects  the  ethics. 
Aquinas's  thought  of  God  is  distinctly  influenced  by  the  social 
forces  about  him.  God  is  the  Ruler  and  Creator  who  creates 
and  holds  the  world  together.^  He  is  infinite  in  power  and 
justice  and  pity.  But  throughout  he  is  Lord  and  Ruler.  There 
is  no  such  tenderness  as  in  Anselm's  thought  of  God  in  the 
"  Proslogium,"  and  although  devout  and  lofty  in  the  extreme, 
Anselm  comes  more  nearly  to  the  thought  of  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  than  does  Thomas  Aquinas.*  We 
have  throughout  the  impression  that  the  interest  of  Thomas  is 
rather  metaphysical  and  intellectual  than  ethical,  and  that  his 
interest  in  the  question  of  God's  existence  and  being  is  dominated 
by  the  place  he  has  in  the  system.  The  fatherhood  of  God  is 
thought  of  almost  exclusively  as  in  the  triune  relationship  and 
simply  opposed  to  the  sonship  of  Jesils.^  It  is  as  metaphysical 
principle  that  his  existence  can  be  proved,®  and  is  of  greatest 

1  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  15,  A.  i.  »  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  44,  A.  3. 

^  The  discussion  of  the  doctrine' of  God  is  in  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  i  to  44.  Q. 
4  deals  with  God's  perfection  and  Q.  6  with  God's  goodness;  Q.  20  with  God's 
love;  Q.  21  with  his  justice  and  mercy;  Q.  26  with  God's  blessedness. 

*  Cf.  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  20  and  21. 

*  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  ^:^,  A.  1-3. 
""Summa,"!  :  Q.  2,  A.  3. 


324  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

importance  to  us  that  the  distinctions  in  the  persons  and  the 
relations  of  the  persons  to  the  world  be  distinctly  described  and 
held  in  mind. 

The  ethical  questions  relating  to  the  doctrine  of  man  are 

6^  answered  prevailingly  in  what  was  supposed  to  be  orthodox 

Augustinianism/  and  before  man  there  is  a  lengthy  discussion 

of  the  whole  subject  of  angels  and  demons,  which  is  still  the 

classical  form  of  the  doctrine  in  Catholicism.^ 

The  soul  (anima)  of  man  is  not  a  body  or  "corpus,"  but  is  the 
actuality  of  a  body.^  As  heat  is  not  a  body,  but  is  the  active 
principle  of  things  made  hot,  man  is,  as  Augustine  teaches, 
not  a  soul  or  a  body,  but  a  soul  and  a  body/  The  psychology 
of  Aquinas  is  the  traditonal  Aristotelian,  as  Aristotle  was  under- 
stood in  the  Middle  Ages,  with  some  modifications  drawn  from 
Augustine,  in  part  resulting  from  his  Platonism  and  in  part 
made  necessary  by  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  sin. 

Man  has  free-will,  or  otherwise  all  counsels,  exhortations, 
precepts,  prohibitions,  rewards,  and  punishments  would  be 
vain.^  And  this  freedom  is  power,  and  as  reason  and  intellect 
are  not  two  powers,  but  one,  so  will  and  freedom  are  not  two 
powers,  but  one."  And  this  voluntary  element  is  in  all  human 
acts,'  and  though  fear  may  produce  acts  that  are  a  mixture  of  the 
voluntary  and  involuntary,  lust,  dealing  as  it  does  with  the  inner 
man,  produces  only  voluntary  action.*  But  man  has  become 
corrupt  in  the  fall,  and  all  the  guilt  of  sin  rests  upon  him.  In 
his  state  of  innocence  his  life  was  quite  different,  and  would 
have  remained  so  but  for  the  fall." 

'  Cf.  discussion  of  the  cause  of  evil,  "Sumraa,"  I  :  Q.  49,  A.  2-3. 
^  "Summa,"  I  :  Qs.  50-64. 

'  For  the  full  discussion,  "Utrum  anima  sit  composita  ex  materia  et  forma?" 
see  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  75,  A.  5. 

*  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  75,  A.  4.  "Sed  contra  est  quod  Augustinus  commendat" 
("De  civ.  Dei,"  lib.  XIX,  cap.  3),  Varronem,  etc.,  etc. 

»  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  83,  A.  i.  «  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  8,  A.  4. 

^  "Summa,"  I  :  II  :  Q.  6.  «  "Summa,'  I  :  II  :  Q.  6,  A.  6-7. 

•  For  elaborate  discussion  of  man  in  a  state  of  innocence,  see  "Summa,"  I  : 
Qs.  93-101.  All  this  knowledge  is  for  Aquinas  as  sure  and  as  attainable  as 
the  facts  of  cvery-day  life. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  325 

In  the  discussion  of  original  sin,  Augustine,  who  has  been  so 
widely  departed  from  in  the  doctrine  of  the  will,  is  now  again 
followed/  The  corrupt  nature  must  be  restored  by  sacramental 
grace.  This  strange  mingling  of  Aristotle  and  Augustine  has 
its  historic  roots  in  the  needs  of  the  hierarchy,  whose  power  is 
so  entirely  wrapt  up  in  faith  in  sacramental  grace.^  Having 
dealt  with  the  great  questions  of  theoretic  importance,  the  actual 
system  of  ethics  is  unfolded,  with  some  necessary  repetitions, 
inevitable  under  such  treatment,  in  Pars  Secunda  SecundcB. 

II.  The  Practical  Ethics. — In  the  classification  of  the  virtues 
we  see  at  once  the  synthetic  character  of  the  ethics  of  Aquinas. 
The  first  three  virtues  are  the  theological  ones,  of  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Love  (caritas);  then  follow  the  fruits  of  love,  i.  e.,  joy, 
peace,  pity,  beneficence,  alms-giving,  fraternal  correction.  After 
these  come  the  cardinal  virtues,'  Prudentia,  Justitia,  Temper- 
antia,  Fortitudo,  following  which  Thomas  discusses  Religion, 
Piety,  Obedience,  Truth,  Liberality,  Magnanimity,  Patience, 
etc.,  etc.,  and  introduces  elements  hitherto  somewhat  strange  to 
his  system  from  Roman  Stoicism  and  its  ethics,  borrowed,  no 
doubt,  through  Ambrose.  ^        | 

After  a  discussion  of  a  virtue,  Thomas  usually  discusses  ' "  *^" 
also  the  corresponding  vice  not  in  order  to  find  an  empiric 
mean  between  extremes,  but  in  order  to  define  and  condemn 
the  forbidden  sin.  We  have  memories  here  of  the  method  of 
Aristotle,  but  no  fruitful  attempt  at  an  actual  application  of  it 
to  life.  The  basis  is  authoritative  definition,  and  the  authorities 
are  the  Philosopher  himself  or  a  church  Father,  or  the  Bible, 
seldom  a  council,  and  only  now  and  then  a  Pope. 

The  very  opening  discussions  on  the  subject  of  faith  introduce 
us  to  the  pagan-intellectualistic  elements  so  evident  in  the 
system.  Faith  is  at  bottom  "  believing  things  to  be  true  because 
God  has  said  them,"  *  and  is  therefore  a  more  certain  basis  for 
knowledge  than  science,  because  nothing  is  more  certain  than 

>"Summa,"I  :  II  :  Qs.  81-84. 

'  See  discussion  of  grace,  "Summa,"  I  :  II  :  Qs.  110-114. 

3  Cf.  "Summa,"  I  :  II  :  Q.  61,  A.  4.       *  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  4,  A.  8. 


326  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

the  word  of  God.  At  the  same  time  these  things  are  given  in 
articles  whose  acceptance  and  interpretation  belong  to  the  intel- 
lect/ and  faith  is  a  habit  (habitus)  both  of  the  will  and  the  intel- 
lect.^ So  no  one  article  can  be  rejected  without  peril  to  faith 
and  the  immortal  soul  of  the  heretic'  Here,  therefore,  we  have 
an  intellectual  superstructure  built  up  on  a  mystical  piety,  and 
in  Thomas  are  co-ordinated  the  mystical  elements  borrowed  by 
Christianity  from  Neoplatonism,  and  the  scientific  pagan  ele- 
ments borrowed  from  the  pages  of  Aristotle.  They  are  held 
together  often  in  an  outward  and  formal  way.  The  central 
authority  of  the  church,  the  overwhelming  force  of  tradition 
begin  to  take  the  place  both  of  the  mystic  inner  vision  and  the 
rational  conclusion  of  the  mind. 

It  is  always  the  failure  of  the  aristocratic  type  of  mind  that  it 
trusts  in  the  outward  might  or  wisdom  of  the  few,  and  thus  in 
ethical  matters  is  inclined  to  look  to  the  outward  rather  than  the 
inward  regulation  of  average  human  life.  Hence  in  Thomas  the 
outward  church  receives  sharper  definition  and  more  outspoken 
support  as  the  bearer  of  the  outward  authority  than  in  almost 
any  other  scholastic*  The  ethics  tend  to  become  the  outward 
code  of  regulative  law.  Thus  are  laid  also  in  Thomas  the  foun- 
dations for  the  future  elaborate  casuistry.  The  monastery  orders 
represented  democratic  elements  in  the  social  and  religious  life 
of  the  day,  but  they  were  not  in  themselves  democratic,  nor  did 
they  tend  to  democracy  in  the  church.  They,  in  fact,  introduced 
and  legalized  the  twofold  order  of  Christianity  by  which  only 
the  highest  attainment  was  open  to  the  monk.  They  thus  be- 
came with  the  priesthood  the  aristocracy  of  the  church. 

In  Thomas  the  ethics  reflect  the  monkish,  ascetic  ideals,  and 
they  are  colored  by  the  mystic  piety — which  took  immediate 
knowledge  of  God  as  the  principle  of  the  existing,  for  the 
immediate  goal  of  the  religious  life.     The  object  of  faith  is 

'  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  i,  A.  lo.  '  "Summa,"  II  :  11  :  Q.  4,  A.  4. 

»"Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  5,  A.  3. 

*  C/.  discussion  of  the  power  of  the  keys,  "Summa,"  III,  supplement  :  Q. 
17,  A.  1-3. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  327 

formally  first  truth,  and  materially  is  God  and  the  things  that 
make  the  way  open  to  God/  This  knowledge  of  God  is  reached 
by  fasting  and  the  contemplative  life.^  And  although  the  active 
life  has  place  for  religion,  and  there  should  even  be  orders  devoted 
to  the  active  life  together  with  contemplation,  yet  "  true  religion 
embraces  love,  to  God  and  one's  neighbor,"  and  the  contem- 
plative life  deals  directly  with  love  to  God,  while  the  active  life 
deals  with  the  neighbor  and  so  through  the  neighbor  with  God,^ 
but  thus  indirectly. 

Of  course  the  vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience  are 
essential  elements  of  the  highest  Christian  life,  because  that  life 
is  thought  of  as  a  search  after  the  knowledge  of  God  and  our 
relations  to  him.*  Love  is  defined  in  terms  of  Augustine  ^  as  a 
motion  of  the  soul  (motum  animi)  toward  enjoying  God  for  his 
own  sake  (propter  ipsum),  and  for  those  who  can  sustain  it  the 
solitary  life  of  contemplation  is  the  highest,  but  is  not  open  to  all.* 

Yet  in  spite  of  these  mystic  and  ascetic  traits  which  logically 
exclude  the  social  and  political  life,  as  forming  religious  oppor- 
tunity, Aquinas  is  too  thoroughly  a  child  of  the  conquering 
ambitious  hierarchy  to  omit  the  social  and  political  elements 
from  his  conglomerate  ethics.  Though  Aquinas  gives  us  no 
definite  doctrine  and  treatment  of  the  church,  he  does  give  the 
materials  for  a  construction  of  such  a  doctrine  in  his  dealing 
with  a  state.'' 

»  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  i,  A.  i. 

2  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q,  147,  AA.  1-8  and  II  :  II  :  Q.  180,  AA.  1-8. 

'  "Ad  dilectionem  autem  Dei  directe  pertinet  contemplativa  vita,  quae  soli 
Deo  vacare  desiderat,"  etc.     "  Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  188,  A.  2. 

*  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  81,  AA.  1-8. 

6  II  :  II  :  Q.  24,  A.  2.  '  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  188,  A.  8. 

^  A  quite  large  literature  has  grown  up  about  this  side  of  Aquinas's  teaching. 
See  Baumann,  Johann  Julius:  "Die  Staatslehre  des  hi.  Thomas  von  Aquino 
.  .  .  aus  seinen  Werken  authentisch  zusammengestellt  .  .  .  Beitrag  zur  Frage 
zwischen  Kirche  und  Staat,"  Leipsic,  1873;  Schneider,  Ceslaus  Maria:  "Die 
sozialistische  Staatsidee  beleuchtet  durch  Thomas  von  Aquin,"  Paderborn, 
1894;  Walter,  Franz:  "Das  Eigenthum  nach  der  Lehre  des  hi.  Thomas  von 
Aquin  und  der  Socialismus,"  Freiburg-in-Baden,  1895;  Schaub,  Franz:  "Die 
Eigentumslehre  nach  Thomas  von  Aquin  und  dem  modernen  Sozialismus  .  .  . 
Gekronte  Preisschrift,"  Freiburg-in-Baden,  1S98. 


328  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  church  on  earth  is  the  ecclesia  militans,  but  feels  herself 
one  with  the  ecclesia  triumphans;  *  she  is  the  sacrament -dis- 
pensing power,  which  she  exercises  through  priests,  with  the 
power  of  the  keys  and  of  absolution  and  excommunication.^ 
But  the  kingdom  of  God  as  the  object  of  the  Christian  hope  in 
the  primitive  sense  is  entirely  wanting  in  scholastic  theology. 
The  only  side  of  this  hope  that  has  any  representation  being 
the  eschatological  as  the  eschatological  elements  are  taken  over 
in  Dionysius.  In  the  explanation  of  Matthew  ^  Thomas  gives 
four  senses  in  which  the  expression  the  kingdom  of  God  {regnum 
ccBlorum)  may  be  understood,  viz.,  as  Christ  himself  dwelling 
in  us  through  grace,  or  as  the  Word  of  God,  or  as  the  present 
church  militant  {ecclesia  militans),  or,  fourthly,  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  may  be  the  heavenly  "curia."  And  in  the  " Summa"  * 
there  is  a  definition  of  the  kingdom  which  makes  all  turn  upon 
the  personal  life  of  the  individual.  "The  kingdom  of  God 
consists  principally  in  internal  acts;  ^  but  as  a  consequence  the 
kingdom  of  God  also  has  to  do  with  all  those  things  without 
which  internal  acts  are  not  possible;  thus  the  reign  of  God  is 
internal  justice  and  peace  and  spiritual  joy:  it  is  necessary 
therefore  that  all  external  acts  repugnant  to  justice  or  peace  or 
spiritual  joy,  are  repugnant  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  should 
be  prohibited  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Gospel."  ^ 

Yet  even  in  this  sense  the  phrase  has  little  place  in  Thomas; 
the  individual  is  in  the  foreground  of  his  thought,  and  the 
salvation  of  the  individual  is  the  goal  of  the  religious  life. 

III.  Outcome. — The  ethical  outcome  of  such  a  conception  of 
Christianity  is  on  the  whole  disappointing.  The  social  condi- 
tions of  the  day  are  in  the  main  accepted,  and  however  exalted 
the  ideal  for  the  personal  life  may  be,  the  ideal  is  overshadowed 
by  the  unreality  of  the  ascetic  teachings. 

'  "Summa,"  I  :  II  :  Q.  102,  A.  4  ad  3. 

="'Summa,"  III  :  supplement  :  Q.  24,  AA.  1-3;  supplement  :  Q.  19  :  AA. 
1-6.  '  ^latt.  3. 

*  "Summa,"  "Prima  SecundiE,"  I  :  II  :  Q.  108,  A.  i  ad  i. 
'  In  inlerioribus  aclibus. 

*  In  Evangelii  regno. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  329 

It  was  not  the  least  of  the  services  that  the  monastery  had 
rendered  to  Europe  that  the  monks  worked  with  their  hands 
and  taught  better  methods  of  farming,  gardening,  fruit  growing 
as  well  as  household  management.  But  industry  as  a  virtue 
has  no  special  treatment  in  the  ethics  of  Aquinas.  The  life  of 
solitary  contemplation  is  the  highest  ideal.  So  even  the  service 
rendered  by  the  studious  monk  is  passed  over  in  relative  silence. 
One  would  hardly  gather  from  the  ethics  of  Thomas  what  noble 
ideals  of  study,  research,  and  scientific  effort  his  own  order  was 
spreading  through  Europe. 

The  enthusiasm  that  made  the  monastery  orders  the  reformers 
of  the  church,  and  that  kept  them  strong  amid  much  corruption, 
was  the  enthusiasm  for  social  service,  which  was  rendered  by 
preaching,  teaching,  and  going  into  waste  places  with  a  mes- 
sage of  new  culture.  But  in  the  systematic  ethics  of  the  day 
there  is  none  of  this;  indeed,  it  is  shadowed  over  by  what  is 
logically  and  historically  destructive  of  such  service. 

In  fact,  in  the  systematic  ethics  of  Thomas  the  old  pagan 
slave  state  with  its  attitude  toward  human  life  reproduces  itself 
in  many  ways.  There  is  the  same  aristocratic  contempt  for  the 
lower  ranges  of  human  life  and  the  same  defence  of  existing 
evils  on  the  ground  that  they  must  be  so.  Slavery  is  a  result, 
for  Thomas,  of  sin,  and  defensible  on  that  ground.^  We  need 
those  who  will  do  the  meaner  work  for  us,^  and  the  higher  life  of 
thought  is  only  for  the  select.  Of  course  mastery  should  be 
exercised  with  mercy  and  pity,  but  the  whole  conception  of  life 
is  the  pagan  notion,  that  one  small  class  is  to  rule  and  live  upon 
the  rest.  So  in  the  Roman  Catholic  literature  aimed  against 
socialism  (see  note,  p.  327),  the  interpretation  of  Thomas  not 
inaccurately  represents  him  as  consistent  defender  of  this 
aristocratic  attitude;  for  even  the  expressions  taken  from  the 
Stoics  are  modified  by  the  context  to  mean  a  real  depend- 

*C/.  "Der  Heilige  Thomas  und  die  Sklaverei  St.  Thomasblatter,"  Jammy, 
1889;  Maurenbrecher,  W.:  "Thomas  von  Aquino's  Stellung  zum  Wirthschafts- 
leben  seiner  Zeit,"  Leipsic,  1898,  where  the  material  is  gathered. 

'  "Summa,"  II  :  I  :  Q.  105,  A.  4.     See  whole  article. 


330  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

ence  of  even  those  equal  before  God,  upon  the  master  in  the 
flesh. 

That  the  mastery  is  thought  of  in  terms  of  spiritual  domina- 
tion as  well  as  civil  rather  darkens  than  relieves  the  situation. 
It  is  vain  to  tell  working-men  to-day  that  in  the  ethics  of  Thomas 
there  is  any  real  outlook  for  the  essential  democracy  based  on 
the  worth  and  dignity  of  all  labor.*  Such  modifications  as 
feudalism  made  upon  the  Aristotelian  ethics  at  this  point  were 
not  directed  toward  democracy  but  the  patrician  aristocracy  of 
the  Italian  city. 

Thus,  for  instance,  in  the  discussion  of  war  there  is  no  real 
attempt  to  bring  its  brutalities  and  horrors  to  the  bar  of  a  loving 
gospel.  There  are  three  conditions  for  a  righteous  war;^  first, 
it  must  be  made  by  the  authority  of  the  prince  and  not  by 
private  persons.  Secondly,  the  cause  must  be  just,  and  thirdly, 
the  intention  must  be  to  advance  good  and  not  evil.  Augustine 
is  the  authority  cited,  and  the  New  Testament  has  very  little 
more  place  than  in  the  ethics  of  to-day. 

Of  course  clergy  and  bishops  are  forbidden  to  fight'  and 
deceit  and  strategy  are  permissible,  as  well  as  fighting  on  feast 
days.*  What  we  find,  therefore,  is  the  ordinary  acceptance  by 
Christian  ethics  in  its  scholastic  form  as,  indeed  generally  since, 
of  the  evils  of  the  day  as  necessary;  and  instead  of  a  frank 
recognition  of  the  prevalent  paganism  in  contrast  with  the  Chris- 
tian ideal,  we  find  lame  defences  of  the  pagan  attitude.  On 
the  subject  of  slavery  and  equal  manhood  Thomas  Aquinas  is 
below  Stoicism  at  its  best,  and  in  regard  to  war  is  about  on  the 
same  level. 

The  ethics  of  property  are  those  of  Aristotle,  but  slightly 
modified  by  the  monastery  ideal.^    Man  is  in  a  twofold  relation 

»  C/.  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  96,  A.  4;  II  :  H  :  Q-  57.  A.  3;  H  :  II  :  Q-  10,  A.  10 
ad  3,  etc.  '  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  40,  A.  1. 

'"Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  40,  A.  2. 

♦  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  40,  A.  3-4. 

»  See  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  66,  AA.  1-9,  where  the  discussion  deals  with  the 
questions:  (i)  Whether  it  is  natural  that  men  should  be  in  possession  of 
external  things;   (2)  Whether  private  possession  is  permissible;   (3)  Is  theft  the 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  531 

to  property;  on  the  one  hand  he  is  competent  to  procure  and 
dispense,  and  so  far  he  has  the  right  of  private  ownership.  But 
he  is  also  a  user  and  enjoyer,  and  so  far  he  has  not  private 
ownership,  but  must  share  with  others.  Private  possession  is 
not  contrary  to  natural  law,  but  is  superadded  by  positive  law.^ 
Theft  from  necessity  is  not  harshly  judged,  and  rapine  is  a  graver 
ofifence  than  theft,  because  of  its  violence  and  danger  to  the  life 
and  honor  of  the  person  robbed. 

The  personal  life  is  placed  on  a  high  level,  thought  of  through- 
out, however,  as  contemplative  rather  than  active.  The  ideals 
of  personal  purity  are  high,  though  here  again  the  false  concep- 
tions of  chastity  ^  as  the  normal  Christian  life,  and  the  unmarried 
homeless  life  of  the  monk  as  normal  makes  the  ethics  at  this  point 
singularly  barren  and  fruitless  for  an  age  when  even  Catholicism 
has  in  practice,  if  not  in  theory,  abandoned,  in  Protestant  sur- 
roundings, at  least,  its  unnatural  attitude.  Even  heretics  are  to  be 
only  lovingly  put  to  death  after  the  church  has  excommunicated 
them.^  Truth,  honor,  fortitude,  etc.,  are  dwelt  upon  with  force 
and  intellectual  vigor.  The  life  of  virtue  is  to  be  one  of  serious 
and  constant  struggle  for  divine  perfection  and  inward  purity, 
and  there  is  to  be  no  room  amidst  the  spiritual  joys  *  for  despond- 
ency and  depression.  How  much  the  life  of  th5  monastery  was 
plagued  with  depression  and  morbidness  may  be  seen  in  the  part 
the  sin  of  acedia  plays  in  the  monastery  ethics.  Acidia  or 
acedia  is  taken  from  the  Greek,  and  came  to  mean  the  revolt 
of  life  against  temporal  and  spiritual  blessings;   the  sorrow  or 

secret  taking  of  another's  possession?  (4)  Whether  rapine  differs  from  theft; 
(5)  Whether  all  theft  is  sin;  (6)  Whether  it  is  mortal  sin;  (7)  Whether  one 
may  steal  in  necessity;  (8)  Whether  all  rapine  is  mortal  sin;  (9)  Whether 
rapine  is  a  graver  offence  than  theft. 

*  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  6,  6,  A.  2. 

»  "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  151,  AA.  1-4. 

'  "Respondeo  .  .  .  sed  post  primam  et  secundatn  correptionem,  ut  Apostolus 
docet:  postmodum  vero  si  adhuc  pertinax  inveniatur,  Ecclesia  de  ejus  conver- 
sione  non  sperans,  aliorum  saluti  providet,  eum  ab  Ecclesia  separando  per  ex- 
communicationis  sententiam;  et  ulterius  relinquit  eum  judicio  saeculari  a  mundo 
exterminandum  per  mortem."     "Summa,"  II  :  II  :  Q.  11,  A.  3. 

*  Gaudia  spiritualia. 


332  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

depression  of  the  soul  which  hinders  spiritual  exercise.^  For 
Thomas  Aquinas  the  natural  fruit  of  the  spirit  was  joy  and 
peace. 

Apart  from  the  monastery  Hmitations  the  life  of  active  teaching 
service,  the  healthy  contact  with  reality,  and,  no  doubt,  the  deep 
and  lasting  influence  of  Albertus  Magnus,  whose  character  shines 
in  all  his  works,  the  ethics  of  Thomas  reflect  a  noble  ideal  of 
manhood  and  womanhood. 

With  Thomas  Aquinas  the  constructive  stage  of  Roman 
Catholic  ethics  practically  ceases.  Not  even  the  Council  of 
Trent  did  more  than  clear  away  some  inconsistencies  and 
restate  some  teachings.  If  Roman  Catholicism  is  to  be  identi- 
fied with  scholasticism,  as  the  late  utterances  of  the  Vatican 
would  seem  to  indicate,  then  the  Jesuit  estimate  of  the  great 
Dominican  is  quite  justified  as  it  seeks  to  make  him  the  formu- 
lator,  final  and  complete,  of  Roman  Catholicism  as  a  closed 
system  of  knowledge  about  God,  man,  angels,  earth,  heaven,  and 
hell,  and  how  we  may  escape  hell  and  purgatory,  and  gain  heaven 
and  the  vision  of  God.  All  completely  given  and  subject  to 
no  doctrine  of  growth  or  evolution.^ 

For  Thomas  Aquinas  the  new  social  structure  was  subject 
to  exactly  the  same  ethics  of  conduct  as  the  social  structure  of 
the  early  Christian  church.  Nothing  is  more  noteworthy  in 
scholasticism  than  its  entire  lack  of  interest  in  history.  Abelard 
could  outrage  his  world  more  by  an  historical  doubt  concerning 
the  identity  of  Dionysius  with  the  Areopagite  than  by  a  serious 
heresy  with  regard  to  the  Trinity.  This  unhistorical  trait  of 
scholasticism  makes  it  for  modern  thought,  with  its  predomi- 
nandy  historic  interest,  a  strange  world.  There  is  in  the  ethics 
of  this  world  no  question  of  adaptation  to  new  historical  situa- 
tions in  the  broader  meaning  of  the  term.  There  are  no  ethical 
lights  and  shades.    The  balancing  of  pros  and  cons  does  not 

*  "Acedia  vcro  est  quaedam  tristitia  qua  homo  redditur  tardus  ad  spirituales 
actus,"  "Summa,"  I  :  Q.  63,  A.  2  ad  2. 

»  "Acta  Sancta;  Sedis,"  vol.  40,  fas,  10,  1907.  Littera;  encyclicse,  "Pascendi," 
pp.  617-621. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  333 

mean  that  there  can  be  any  half-lights  in  which  even  the  well- 
meaning  man  may  take  darkness  for  light;  it  only  signifies  that 
a  sharper  and  more  self-consequent  dialectic  is  needed  and  a 
larger  and  more  exhaustive  examination  of  authorities. 

Theology  is  for  scholasticism  not  only  a  divine  system  of 
knowledge  about  God  and  our  relations  to  him,  but  the  explana- 
tion also  of  a  divine  system  of  knowledge  about  the  world,  its 
past,  and  its  future.  The  hopelessness  of  substituting  this  flat, 
non-plastic  picture  of  human  conduct;  this  colored  map,  with 
its  lack  of  all  elevation  and  depression,  with  its  strained  surfaces 
and  unreal  projections,  for  the  actual  living  organism  ethics  is 
called  upon  to  deal  with  and  to  explain,  should  surely  slowly 
dawn  even  upon  the  obtuse. 

From  this  point  of  view  Aquinas  is  in  a  sense  the  last  word. 
As  far  as  dialectic  and  authority  can  bring  us  he  has  brought  us. 
The  service  he  rendered  was  no  little  one.  The  "  silent  Sycilian 
bull"  did  make  his  roar  heard  in  all  the  world,  and  the  voice  is 
not  silent  yet.  His  firm  faith  that  all  religion  and  all  knowledge 
could  be  summed  up  and  that  it  was  the  theologian's  duty  to 
sum  up  the  religion  and  the  knowledge  of  his  day  gave  impetus 
to  serious  study  and  research  and  gave  a  new  starting-point 
for  the  world's  advancing  culture.  Alas,  that  men  so  easily 
mistake  the  starting-point  for  the  goal. 


in.      CRITICAL  SCHOLASTICISM 

It  may  seem  artificial  to  separate  out  some  of  the  scholastics 
from  their  fellows  and  call  them  critical.  They  were  not  them- 
selves consciously  or  willingly  more  critical  than  those  whom 
we  have  discussed.  But  it  is  by  the  outcome  of  their  work 
rather  than  by  their  aims  and  methods  that  we  so  judge  them. 
It  lay  in  the  very  undertaking  of  scholasticism  that  serious 
doubts  should  be  raised,  and  that  the  answers  given  should  raise 
critical  objection.  When  in  older  pre-scholastic  days  Boethius 
raised  the  question  as  to  the  kind  of  reality  possessed  by  the 


334  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

so-called  universals  or  "praedicabilia,"  ^  he  was  simply  asking 
again  the  question  of  all  questions  in  philosophy,  but  when 
scholasticism  identified  religion  with  a  final  answer  to  that  ques- 
tion it  was  inevitable  that  sooner  or  later  religion  should  herself 
be  challenged  in  the  name  of  philosophy. 

It  was  possible  for  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  to  hold  alike  the 
dogmatic  system  of  the  East  and  a  pagan  culture,  because  the 
Western  intellectual  world  was  young;  but  as  it  grew  older  the 
questions  became  more  and  more  insistent  and  minds  constantly 
more  critical.  Even  Anselm  was  an  educator  of  the  questioning 
mind.  He  undertook  to  satisfy  the  doubter,  not  simply  by 
piling  up  authority  upon  authority,  but  by  satisfying  the  reason. 
Sooner  or  later  the  question  must  arise:  "If  reason  contradicts 
authority,  which  must  yield?  Whether  they  wished  it  or  not, 
the  substantial  outcome  of  critical  scholasticism  was  the  im- 
pression that  men  had  to  flee  from  reason  to  authority  or  sur- 
render authority. 

If  ethics  is  a  system  clean  cut,  sharply  defined,  based  upon 
final  divine  utterances,  then  examination  and  exposition  of 
those  utterances  is  the  only  method  of  approach.  Scholasticism 
however,  had  accepted  Aristotle  and  Plato  as  ethical  teachers, 
and  these  teachers  had  started  with  man,  with  his  longings,  his 
impulses,  his  intentions,  his  search  of  happiness  and  the  final 
good.  It  is  this  conception  of  ethics  that  dominates  the  men 
we  are  now  to  consider.  They  were  all  true  children  of  an 
authoritative  church.  The  judgments  of  Cousin  and  Reuter  - 
upon  the  first  of  these  critical  scholastics,  Peter  Abelard,'  in 

*  As  in  his  commentary  upon  the  Isagog  of  Porphyry,  "Mox  de  generibus  at 
speciebus  illud  quidem,  sive  subsistat,  sive  in  solis  nudis  intellectibus  posita 
sit,  sive  subsistentia  corporalia  sint  an  incorporaha,  et  utrum  separata  a  sensi- 
bilibus  an  insensibilibus  posita:  et  circa  hxc  consistentia  dicere  recusabo."  See 
MPL,  vol.  LXIV,  col.  82. 

^Reuter,  H.:  "Geschichtc  der  religiosen  Aufklllrung  im  Mittelalter,"  vol.  I, 
Berlin,  1875,  pp.  183-259. 

'  Petrus  Aba;lardus,  or  Ab(?lard,  was  born  1079  at  Palais,  and  studied  under 
Roscelinus,  William  of  Champeaux,  and  Anselm  of  Ruan.  His  relations  to 
Heloise  the  niece  of  Canon  Fulbert,  and  the  revenge  Fulbert  took  are  well  known. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  335 

which  the  impression  is  left  that  he  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  con- 
scious herald  of  the  coming  illumination,  is  unjust  to  him.  He 
was  honestly  persuaded  of  his  own  orthodoxy,  and  the  ideals 
and  freedom  of  the  illumination  would  have  been  strange  and 
even  repulsive  to  him.  This  one  sees  plainly  not  only  in  his 
attitude  toward  the  controversy  with  Roscelin  about  the  Trinity, 
but  in  his  defence  of  the  method  of  dialectics.^  His  point  of 
view  was  that  authority,  indeed,  was  the  last  resort,  but  that  to 
understand  authority  one  must  have  a  dialectic. 

Upon  us  the  arguments  of  Sic  et  non  produce  the  effect  of 
hopeless  confusion  among  the  authorities.  But  for  Abelard  and 
his  age  the  authority  of  the  church  as  the  protectress  of  all 
culture  was  unshaken,  it  remained  only  for  the  faithful  son  of 
the  church  to  properly  understand  the  authority.  Abelard,  as 
Cousin  rightly  argues,  in  full  good  faith  applied  dialectic  to 
theology  with  a  keenness  hitherto  lacking.^  And  in  good  faith 
he  was  persuaded  that  reason  and  faith  had  no  conflict  with  each 
other.  Of  course  the  effect  was  inevitable.  The  process 
became  even  in  the  hands  of  Abelard  a  trial  of  the  conclusions 

He  had  a  restless,  tragic  life,  and  died  in  1 142.  Paris  was  the  place  of  his  great- 
est triumph  and  bitterest  humiliation.  The  sources  for  the  ethical  student  are 
found  in  his  collected  works.  Victor  Cousin:  "Ouvrages  inedits  d'Abelard," 
Paris,  1836,  and  Petri  Abaelardi:  "Opera  hactenus  scarsim  edita  nunc  primum 
in  unum  collegit,"  Paris,  1849-1859,  in  two  volumes.  The  first  volume  contains, 
besides  other  writings,  the  famous  "  Sic  et  non,"  and  in  the  other  volumes  are  found 
the  "  Theologia  "  and  "  Ethica,"  the  last  under  the  title  " Scito  te  ipsum."  These, 
together  with  parts  of  the  "Dialogue  between  a  Philosopher,  a  Jew,  and  a  Chris- 
tian," form  the  main  sources  for  the  ethical  teachings  of  Abelard.  All  are  found 
reprinted  in  MPL,  torn.  178,  1855.  His  life  is  sketched  by  his  own  pen  in  the 
famous  "Epistolae."  For  the  "Historia  Calamitatum,"  see  Epistola  I,  opera, 
torn.  I,  p.  3  (Cousin).  There  are  many  French  translations  of  the  letters  to 
Heloise  (M.  Greard,  1870,  and  others),  and  also  free  English  renderings.  Victor 
Cousin's  introduction  to  the  first  volume  ("  Ouvrages  inedits  ")  is  an  excellent 
guide,  but  must  be  read  critically.  The  literature  concerning  Abelard  is  very  great, 
but  his  ethics  have  been  but  slightly  dealt  with.  Cf.,  however,  a  good  review  by 
Ziegler,  Th.:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik,"  2d  ed.,  Strasburg,  1892,  pp. 
262-271,  and  in  Ueberweg-Heinze:  "Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophic," 
Berlin,  1905,  §  24. 

'  Epist.  Xni,  Migne,  torn.  178,  col.  351. 

*  Cousin,  v.:  "Ouvrages  inedits,"  introduction,  clxxvii. 


336  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

of  authority  before  the  bar  of  reason,  with  the  new  dialectic  as 
the  method  of  inquisition. 

It  was  thus  inevitable  that  the  ethics  of  Abelard  should  break 
the  bounds  of  legal  enactment,  and  that  he  should  endeavor  to 
deepen  and  spiritualize  the  basis  of  conduct.  This  involved 
him  at  once  in  controversy  with  the  existing  tradition,  for  he 
tries  in  Scito  te  ipsum  ^  to  show  that  vices  (vitia)  must  be  of  the 
mind,  that  mere  defects  are  not  vices.  He  argues  that  there  is 
a  difference  between  the  vice  inclining  to  evil  (malum)  and  sin 
(peccaium),  and  that  to  sin  there  must  be  the  intention  of  the 
will;  and  that  in  any  act,  as  of  self-defence  upon  the  part  of  a 
slave  resulting  in  murder,  the  sin  of  the  act  is  measured  by  the 
intention.^  Thus  sin  is  not  in  being  tempted  but  in  having  a 
mind  that  is  inclined  to  temptation  and  in  yielding  to  it,  for 
God  will  not  suffer  us  to  be  tempted  beyond  our  strength.  So 
that  even  the  suggestions  of  demons  can  be  resisted. 

The  committed  sins  are,  indeed,  more  heavily  punished  than 
intended  but  uncommitted  ones,  but  this  is  for  examples'  sake, 
and  because  we  can  only  judge  from  results,  but  not  so  with 
God's  judgment,  who  tries  the  heart.  Since  all  sins  are  of  the 
mind  and  not  of  the  body,  what  is  meant  by  spiritual  and  carnal 
sin  is  that  the  bodily  lust  is  yielded  to  by  the  mind.' 

Thus  there  can  be  no  sin  unless  there  is  an  offended  conscience. 
Sin  is  contempt  of  God  {Contemptus  Dei).  Those  who  igno- 
rantly  persecuted  God's  saints  sinned  by  not  knowing  God,  but 
not  in  following  conscience,  hence  Stephen  prays  for  them. 
Sin  is  often  used  for  penalty.  Adam  sinned  and  the  penalty 
{poena)  has  fallen  on  all.  And  God  suffers  men  to  be  punished, 
not  for  intended  sin  on  their  part,  but  for  their  purgation  or 
probation.  Moreover,  God  knows  from  the  beginning  the  minds 
and  intentions  of  men,  and  acts  accordingly.  Sins  vary  in  de- 
gree, and  Abelard's  conclusion,  of  course,  is  that  we  must  study 
to  please  God  and  find  out  what  his  will  is.     Perfection,  there- 

'  Cousin,  v.:  "Opera,"  vol.  II,  pp.  593-642;  also  in  Migne,  torn.   178,  cols 
633-678. 
2  Cap.  III.  *  Cap.  VI  and  VII. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  337 

fore,  involves  a  knowledge  gained  only  by  fearless  and  skilful 
dialectic  and  an  intention  to  do  the  right  when  it  has  thus  been 
disclosed. 

In  the  following  discussions  of  the  treatise  on  penitence,  con- 
fession, and  the  priestly  power  of  the  keys  Abelard  moves  in 
the  traditional  world  of  thought.  He  neither  here  nor  else- 
where plainly  sees  the  real  effect  of  his  teaching  upon  sacra- 
mental grace,  a  magic  priesthood,  or  the  blind  acceptance  of 
churchly  authority.  Any  one  going  to  Abelard's  works,  and 
expecting  to  find  them  what  Reuter  in  his  history  of  the  illumina- 
tion would  seem  to  regard  them  as  being,  namely,  reformation- 
writings  before  the  Reformation,  will,  it  is  to  be  feared,  be  greatly 
disappointed.  But  in  so  far  it  is  just  to  call  Abelard  a  fore- 
runner of  the  illumination  in  that  he  did  actually  show  the 
process  by  which  scholasticism,  on  the  one  side,  developed  its 
system  in  Aquinas,  and  on  the  other  destroyed  it  in  humanism. 

But  even  humanism  was  not  of  necessity  hostile  to  the  church, 
because,  while  rejecting  the  particular  solution  of  the  question 
given  by  scholasticism,  it  could  do  its  thinking  within  the  limits 
of  ecclesiastical  cult  and  ritual.  This  is  substantially,  indeed, 
the  solution  Abelard  urges  upon  philosophy  in  the  "Dialogue 
between  a  Philosopher,  a  Jew,  and  a  Christian."  This  dialogue 
resolves  itself  in  the  later  phases  into  an  ethical  treatise  and  a 
discussion  of  the  highest  good.  This  begins  where  the  Christian 
takes  up  the  argument,^  and  shows  that  Christianity  has  all  that 
the  Jew  and  the  Philosopher  have  and  the  promise  of  more. 
That  philosophy  is  right,  as  far  as  it  goes,  Abelard  does  not 
question:  so  also  Judaism  is  right  up  to  a  certain  point,  but  both 
have  need  of  an  authoritative  guidance,  and  this  Christianity 
alone  supplies.^  The  little  treatise  on  the  virtues  given  in  the 
"Dialogue"  ^  represents,  no  doubt,  fairly  the  ethical  content  of 

'  Victor  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  II,  pp.  643-718,  MPL,  torn.  178,  col.  1635. 

^"Exoratio  Magistri  ad  discipulum  de  inquisitione  summi  boni."  Victor 
Cousin's  edition,  vol.  II,  pp.  715-718,  MPL,  178,  col.  1681-1684. 

*  Victor  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  II,  pp.  687-691,  and  MPL,  torn.  178,  cols. 
1654-1660. 


338  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Abelard's  own  teaching,  but  such  a  knowledge  of  good  and  evil 
only  increases  man's  responsibility  and  need,  and  only  the  light 
of  the  church  gives  the  fulness  of  divine  guidance/  Moreover, 
for  Abelard  the  weight  of  the  argument  is  to  show  the  justice 
and  goodness  of  the  God  whose  forgiveness  and  punishments 
are  matters  of  revelation.  The  defence  of  God  by  the  Christian 
reminds  the  reader  often  of  the  defence  of  him  made  by  Job's 
false  friends,  but  that  which  Abelard  deems  of  importance  is 
rather  the  rational  character  of  ecclesiastical  ethics  as  revealed. 
So  at  the  close  the  Master  exhorts  his  disciple,  "that  he  should 
listen  indeed  to  the  natural  law  proclaimed  by  the  philosopher, 
and  to  the  law  defended  by  the  Jew,  but  that  grace  and  truth 
only  came  by  Jesus,  and  he  is  anathema  who  teaches  other  than 
the  word  of  evangelical  doctrine,^  which  alone  strengthens  the 
will  by  grace  preceding  and  accompanying  its  acts,  and  gives 
us  to  see  and  taste  the  highest  good  which  is  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  one  God.^ 

In  some  sense  Abelard  may  be  called  the  founder  of  the 
scholastic  method,  for  his  Sic  et  non  marks  distinctly  the  spirit  of 
all  the  later  writers.  There  is  the  same  balancing  of  the  various 
authorities,  the  objective  statement  of  the  intellectual  difficulties, 
and  then  the  attempted  resolution  of  the  difficulties.  This  is  seen 
in  weary  perfection  in  the  entirely  indigestible  Duns  Scotus* 

'  "Mystice  tamen  intelligi  facile  est  lunam  tunc  ut  solem  fulgere,  id  est  eccle- 
siam  electorum  sicut  et  ejus  solem  Deum  indeficientem  lucem  habere,  et  in  ipsum 
ejus  solem  tunc  quoque  ita  lucem  ipsius  lunae  transcendere,  ut  in  ipso  solo  lucis 
sit  perfectio,  quae  scptenario  designatur  numero."  Victor  Cousin's  edition,  vol. 
II,  p.  705. 

'  "  Verbum  doctrinas  ipsius  evangelical,  plena  et  veritate."  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.," 
178,  1684  D. 

'  The  closing  words  of  the  "Exoratio  magistri  ad  discipulum,"  attached  to  the 
"Dialogue."     Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  cols.  1081-1084. 

*  Johannes  Duns  Scotus  was  born  either  in  Duns  (Ireland)  or  in  Dunston 
(Scotland),  between  the  years  1265  and  1274.  He  became  a  member  of  the 
Franciscan  Order,  and  taught  in  O.xford,  Paris,  and  Cologne.  He  died  about 
1308.  The  main  sources  for  his  ethics  are  the  "Distinctiones  in  Lib.  Senten- 
tiarum,"  tomi  V-X.  Complete  edition  of  his  works  by  the  Irish  fathers  of 
the  order,  Lyon,  1639,  in  thirteen  volumes,  and  a  new  Paris  edition  in  twenty-six 
volumes,  Paris,  1891-1895. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  339 

For  the  student  of  ethics  his  works  are  highly  unfruitful,  save 
only  as  he  laid  the  foundation  for  a  deep  distrust  of  all  merely 
rational  ethics,  and  exalted  the  science.  Theology  (theologia) 
is  for  Duns  Scotus  practical  and  not  speculative,*  yet  no  system 
seems  at  times  more  hopelessly  speculative,  for  Duns  Scotus 
gives  back  on  bare  authority,  as  he  interprets  it,  all  the  meta- 
physical philosophy  he  takes  away  by  his  sceptical  dialectic 
acuteness.  As  a  good  example  of  his  learned  confusion  one 
may  turn  to  his  discussion  of  the  Aristotelian  teaching  concerning 
"habitus"  in  the  ethical  realm.^  His  interest  is  to  assert  the 
will  as  superior  to  the  intellect  and  as  ordering  the  whole 
spiritual  life.  This  spiritual  life  is  then  shown  to  be  a  super- 
natural gift.  Reason  is  powerless.  God  is  the  supreme  giver, 
and  maker  of  the  good.  But  his  decree  includes  man's  freedom 
of  choice,^  and  hence  a  contingency  which,  as  far  as  the  writer 
knows,  he  never  really  adjusts  to  God's  foreknowledge,  which 
he  also,  of  course,  postulates.*  In  this  freedom  man  can  do 
justly  or  can  sin,  but  mere  conformity  of  outward  acts  to  what 
God  purposes  does  not  constitute  moral  good,  it  must  be  an 
inward  conformity  only  possible  by  grace,^  Man's  sin  is  his 
own,  and  God's  responsibility  is  only  secondary,  or  mediate.® 

In  discussing  whether  "intention"  constitutes  the  sole  act  of 
the  will  Duns  Scotus  insists  upon  defining  the  intention  and 
showing  an  intellectual  element  in  each  decision.^ 

In  the  actual  ethics  Duns  Scotus  follows  in  the  same  general 
line  drawn  by  traditional  theology  before  either  Aquinas  or 
himself,*  although  the  familiar  thoughts  of  Dionysius  and  the 
Platonic  school  have  larger  influence,  and  the  ethics  is  even 
more  essentially  legal,  as  simply  the  expression  of  God's  infinite 

*  "Prologue  Distinctiones,"  4,  Paris  edition,  1893,  torn.  8,  pp.  195-293. 
^  Lib.  I,  dist.  XVII,  Quaest.  1-6,  Paris  ed.,  torn.  10,  1893,  pp.  32-122. 

'  Lib.  I,  dist.  XXXIX,  Paris  ed.,  1893,  torn.  10,  pp.  612-675. 

*  The  full  discussion  in  Lib.  I,  dist.  XXXIX  to  XLII,  and  Lib.  II,  dist.  XXVIII 
to  XXIX. 

»  Lib.  I,  dist.  XLVIII,  Q.  i.  «  Lib.  I,  dist.  XXXVII,  Q.  i. 

'  Lib.  II,  dist.  XXXVIII,  Q.  i,  Paris  ed.,  1893,  torn.  13,  pp.  398-405. 
»  Cf.  the  ethics  of  Lib.  Ill,  dist.  XXVI  to  XL. 


^J^ 


340  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

and  powerful  will.  Nor  is  it  encouraging  to  see  the  way  the 
subtile  Franciscan  changed  the  loving  freedom  of  his  great 
master  St.  Francis  into  sacramental  magic.  For  to  the  sacra- 
ments and  their  particular  magic  power  he  devotes  special 
attention.*  There  is  a  devotional  tone  in  Duns  Scotus  which, 
however,  does  not  soften,  as  one  might  expect,  his  ethics,  nor 
indeed  his  general  outlook.^  In  him  appears  also  all  the  childish 
scholastic  speculation  at  greater  length  than  ever.^  And  great 
as  is  his  dialectic  skill,  the  result  of  his  teaching  was  not  and 
could  not  be  constructive.  It  was  too  critical  of  the  philosoph- 
ical basis  upon  which  the  school  philosophy  rested.  His  con- 
tinual refuge  is  to  authority,  because  reason  gives  way,  and  he 
thus  unwittingly  admits  the  bankruptcy  of  rationalization. 

It  is  not  the  place  here  to  decide  how  far  Abelard  and  Rosce- 
linus  were  nominalists,  and  how  far  they  agreed  or  disagreed,  nor 
yet  what  was  the  exact  relation  to  the  controversy  about  uni- 
versal sustained  by  William  Ockhani.*  He  was  one  of  those 
who  disturbed  the  peace  by  simply  raising  again  the  question  on 
which  the  whole  traditional  thinking  rested. 

Often  the  scholastic  writers  seem  to  the  modem  reader  hke 
exceedingly  clever  children  discussing  a  world  they  only  know 

>  The  discussions  are  found  in  Lib.  IV,  dist.  I  to  XIII,  Paris  ed.,  1894,  tomi 
16  and  17. 

"  Cf.  his  discussion  of  whether  the  damned  and  their  sufferings  are  seen  by  the 
saved.     Lib.  IV,  dist.  L,  Q.  3,  Paris  ed.,  torn.  21,  pp.  543-548. 

'  Cf.  Lib.  IV,  dist.  XXX,  Q.  2.  "Utrum  inter  Mariam  et  Joseph  fuerit  verum 
matrimonium?" 

*  William  Ockham  was  born  in  Surrey,  England,  about  1300,  and  died  April, 
1347.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Duns  Scotus,  and  a  Franciscan  monk.  He  distinctly 
influenced  Luther  in  his  conception  of  the  relation  of  the  Pope  to  the  State. 
(Cf.  Rettberg,  Friedr.  Wilh.:  "Ockham  und  Luther,  oder  Vergleich  ihrer  Lehre 
vom  h.  Abendmahl"  in  Theologische  Studien  und  Kritiken,  1839,  pp.  69-136.) 
His  works  are  not  accessible  in  a  complete  edition.  (No  reprint  in  Migne,  "  Pat. 
Lat.")  All  the  writer  has  had  access  to  arc:  "Super  Potestate  Summi  Ponti- 
ficis  .  .  .  ,"  1496;  "Disputatio  inter  clericum  ct  militem,"  1495;  "Summaria 
.  .  .  operis  nonaginta  Dierum,"  1495;  "Compendium  crrorum  Johannis  pape 
XXII,"  Lyons,  1495.  He  was  driven  from  Paris  and  took  refuge  with  Louis  of 
Bavaria.  In  the  works  to  which  the  writer  has  had  access  is  no  systematic 
treatment  of  ethics  as  such. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  341 

by  hearsay,  and  firmly  persuaded  that  their  parents  and  teachers 
are  incapable  of  blundering.  To  merely  suggest  that  the  dialec- 
tic method  was  at  so  important  a  point  seriously  at  fault  was  to 
shake  the  foundations  of  the  elaborate  theological  structure,  so 
painfully  reared,  and  which  was  so  intimately  identified  with 
the  actual  living  faith  of  the  mass  of  thinking  men  and  women. 

Nor  can  it  be  successfully  disputed  that  this  elaborate  structure 
has  its  logical  outcome  in  an  infaUible  living  voice,  and  that  the 
Pope  has  the  best  historical  claim  to  be  that  voice.  If  religion 
consists  in  accepting  infallible  authority,  then  surely  it  is  of  high 
importance  that  the  authority  be  as  unquestioned  and  as  un- 
questionable as  possible.  Hence  the  attitude  of  Ockham  toward 
the  papacy,  and  indeed  the  attempted  independence  of  the 
University  of  Paris  and  the  Gallican  church,  were  serious 
matters  and  disturbing  factors  in  the  last  degree. 

Nominalism  failed  to  go  the  logical  lengths  of  the  system,  and 
took  refuge  in  authority  as  over  against  speculation,  and  so 
really  strengthened  the  papacy:  but  for  a  little  time  it  seemed 
as  if  the  new  type  of  piety — introduced  by  the  mendicant 
orders  * — might  so  separate  itself  under  the  leadership  of  critical 
scholasticism  as  to  produce  a  serious  revolution  in  the  religious 
and  ethical  thinking  of  the  church.  This  type  of  piety  we  study 
best  in  the  works  of  another  set  of  scholastic  thinkers. 

IV.   MYSTICAL   SCHOLASTICISM 

What  Harnack  calls  the  "  tedious  doctor's  thesis  question,"  ^ 
concerning  the  relation  of  mysticism  to  scholasticism,  will 
always  be  answered  in  accordance  with  one's  understanding  of 
these  two  terms.  Mysticism  is  found  throughout  in  scholasti- 
cism because  it  belongs  to  the  systemless  conglomerate  with 
which  scholasticism  as  an  organizing  intellectual  force  had  to 
deal.  The  Western  world  did  not  accept  Christianity  primarily 
as  a  system  either  of  theology  or  ethics,  but  as  religion  and  life. 

>  See  p.  357- 

' ".  .  .  durch  Confusion  und  Langeweile  ausgezeichnete  Doctorfrage." 
"  Dogmengeschichte,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  328,  3d  ed. 


342  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

This  religion  had  from  early  days  its  mystical  elements.  Whether 
they  are  legitimate  divine  additions  to  the  simpler  ethical  mono- 
theism of  Judaic  prophetism  or  whether  they  are  obnoxious 
intrusions  is  still  a  mooted  question. 

It  is,  however,  important  that  it  be  clearly  understood  what 
in  these  pages  is  meant  by  mysticism.  The  term  would  be  more 
useful  if  more  narrowly  defined,  not  as  covering  emotional  and 
sentimental  piety,  but  as  referring  to  the  profound  faith  that 
religion  is  knowledge  of  ultimate  reality  and  that  this  knowledge 
can  only  be  obtained  by  abstraction  from  the  sensuous  and 
phenomenal.  In  this  sense  mysticism  is  despondent  with  regard 
to  the  present  and  the  seen;  it  is  essentially  dualistic,  dividing 
between  the  ultimate  reality,  unchanged  and  unchangeable,  and 
the  transcendent  phenomenal;  it  is  generally  ascetic,  desiring  to 
strip  off  the  body  that  the  soul  may  see.  It  may  be  intensely 
monotheistic  with  God  symbolized  and  even  conceived  anthro- 
pomorphically,  but  the  tendency  must  always  be  toward  pan- 
theism. 

He  who  deals  with  mysticism  is  primarily  occupied  with 
psychological  states,  and  the  division  of  the  mystics  should  be  on 
the  basis  of  the  psychological  interest.  When  the  emphasis  is 
upon  religion  as  knowledge  of  reality,  the  mysticism  is  intellectual 
in  its  caste.  When  the  emphasis  is  upon  religion  as  union  with 
reality  the  type  of  mysticism  may  become  emotional  and  ecstatic. 
On  the  other  hand  the  emphasis  may  be  so  placed  that  this  union 
is  thought  of  as  union  of  the  will  with  reality,  and  we  have  what 
the  writer  ventures  to  call  thclemic  ^  mysticism.  This  thelemic 
mysticism  may  again  in  its  fundamental  character  be  dominated 
either  by  the  intellectual  or  the  emotional  interest.  One  char- 
acteristic of  mysticism,  as  thus  defined,  is  the  inevitable  monot- 
ony of  its  processes.  It  must  be  prevailingly  passive,  and  the 
mental  processes  are  usually  fantastic  and  readily  become  patho- 
logical. Ethics  cannot  be  more  than  a  secondary  interest,  for 
the  heart  of  ethics  is  a  right  relationship  to  the  phenomenal 
world,  while  for  mysticism  abstraction  from  the  phenomenal 

*  From  rb  BfKrffut.. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  343 

world  is  the  necessary  means  to  the  goal  that  is  primarily  intel- 
lectual and  not  ethical,  namely,  knowledge  of  fundamental 
reality. 

The  history  of  Christian  mysticism,  or,  as  the  writer  would 
prefer  to  say,  of  mysticism  within  Christianity,  has  yet  to  be 
satisfactorily  written.* 

Unfortunate  misuse  of  the  conception  of  the  Logos  in  the 
fourth  Gospel,  and  the  linking  of  Hellenistic  Judaism  (Philo, 
etc.)  with  early  Christianity,  gave  rise  to  many  weird  combina- 
tions. In  Victorinus  ^  the  process  may  be  seen,  but  was  surely 
older  and  deeper  than  his  personal  influence.     In  Augustine 

'  For  the  literature  of  mysticism,  see  Vaughan,  Robert  Alfred:  "Hours  with 
the  Mystics,"  2  vols.,  London,  1856,  1st  ed.;  Gorres,  Johann  Joseph  von:  "Die 
christliche  Mystik,"  5  vols.,  Regensburg,  1836-1842,  new  ed.,  1879-1880; 
Helfferich,  Adolph:  "Die  christliche  Mystik  in  ihrer  Entwickelung  und  ihren 
Denkmalen,"  2  vols.,  Gotha,  1842;  Noack,  Ludwig:  "Die  christliche  Mystik 
nach  ihrem  geschichtlichen  Entwickelungsgange  im  Mittelalter  und  der  neuern 
Zeit,"  Konigsberg,  1853;  Royce,  Josiah:  "The  World  and  the  Individual," 
vol.  I  (Gifford  Lectures,  1899),  lectures  2,  3,  and  5,  New  York,  1900;  Miinster- 
berg,  Hugo:  " Psychology  and  Life,"  Boston,  1899,  pp.  229-282;  Cousin,  Victor: 
"Cours  de  I'histoire  de  la  philosophic  moderne,"  new  edition,  Paris,  1847,  3 
vols.  (vol.  n  :  Lefon  9),  English  translation  by  G.  W.  Wight  ("Course  of  the 
History  of  Modern  Philosophy"),  2  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1852,  also  New  York, 
1857,  3  vols.;  Preger,  Wilhelm:  "Geschichte  der  deutschen  Mystik  im  Mittel- 
alter nach  den  Quellen  untersucht  und  dargestellt,"  Leipsic,  1874-1893,  3  vols, 
(the  fourth  volume  has  not  yet  appeared);  HiJgel,  Friedrich  Baron  von:  "The 
Mystical  Element  of  Religion  as  Studied  in  Saint  Catherine  of  Genoa  and  Her 
Friends,"  2  vols,  London  and  New  York,  1908;  Zahn,  Josef:  "Einfiihrung  in 
die  christliche  Mystik,"  Paderborn,  1908;  Recejac,  E.:  "Essay  on  the  Bases  of 
Mystic  Knowledge,"  translated  by  Sara  Carr  Upton,  New  York,  1899;  Inge, 
William  Ralph:  "Studies  of  English  Mystics"  (St.  Margaret's  Lectures,  1905), 
London,  1907. 

'  Victorinus,  Cajus  Marius.  A  teacher  of  rhetoric  in  Rome,  who  accepted 
Christianity  in  later  life  and  identified  it  with  his  Neoplatonic  speculation 
founded  upon  Plotinus  and  Porphyry.  His  commentaries  on  Galatians,  Philip- 
pians,  and  Ephesians,  as  well  as  his  essay,  "De  generatione  verbi  divini,"  some 
hymns,  etc.,  are  preserved.  See  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  8,  cols.  993-1310 jf.; 
and  some  of  his  influence  may  be  traced  to  his  extreme  orthodoxy  on  the  question 
of  the  ofioo^ffios.  He  died  about  363.  Gore  and  Harnack  regard  him  as 
having  deeply  influenced  Augustine,  "an  ihn  hat  sich  Augustine — wenn  ich 
nicht  irre — in  der  entscheidenen  Epoche  seines  Lebens  gebildet."  Harnack: 
"Dogmengeschichte,"  III,  3d  ed.,  p.  31,  English  translation,  vol.  V,  1899,  p. 
33;   ed.  1890,  p.  30. 


344  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

there  is  identification  of  God  with  ultimate  reality,  and  the 
underlying  longing  to  be  lost  in  God,  but  speculation  is  subordi- 
nated to  the  religious-ethical  interest.  This  speculative  side 
is  not  the  predominant  note  in  the  theology  of  the  Western 
world  which  looked  to  Augustine,  and  only  in  the  fifth  or  sixth 
century  do  we  find,  even  in  the  Greek  church,  a  man  who  com- 
pletely subordinates  the  religious-ethical  to  the  speculative 
knowledge  of  reality.  Through  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  the 
writings  of  Dionysiiis  the  Areopagite^  became  the  possession 
of  the  Latin  world.  Erigena  translated  them  at  the  command 
of  Charlemagne,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  had  himself  but  super- 
ficial contact  with  the  fundamental  character  of  mysticism. 
Indeed  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the  scholastic  writers  who  make 
so  much  use  of  Dionysius  really  fully  understood  how  completely 
he  stood  on  pagan  and  non-Biblical  ground.  It  is  scarcely 
too  much  to  say  that  mysticism  hardly  needs  an  ethics  and  ulti- 
mately renders  it  superfluous.  Goodness  is  for  Dionysius  not 
really  a  moral  but  a  metaphysical  attribute.     It  is  "complete- 

'  The  Pseudo-Dionysius  the  Areopagite  has  given  much  trouble  to  the  critical 
world.  But  it  may  now  be  accepted  that  the  writings  are  forgeries  of  the  fifth 
or  sixth  centuries,  perhaps  on  the  basis  of  lost  writings  more  or  less  incorporated 
in  what  we  now  have.  The  writings  are  conveniently  collected  with  Latin 
translation  in  Migne,  "Pat.  Graeca,"  torn.  3.  (The  scholia  of  Maximus  and 
"Vitse,"  in  tom.  4).  These  writings,  irepi  ttjs  ovpavla^  Upapx^as  (De  easiest! 
hierarchia);  irepl  t^j  iKKK-qffiaffTiKiji  lepapxl-a-i  {De  ecclesiastica  hierarchia);  irepl 
Oeluu  6vop.dTwv  (De  divinis  nominihus);  irepl  fivariK^s  6€o\oylai  (De  myslka 
theologia);  Epistola;  and  the  so-called  Liturgia  S.  Dionysii  have  been  enor- 
mously influential.  De  coslesti  hierarchia  and  De  ecclesiastica  hierarchia 
have  been  edited  and  translated  into  English  by  Colct  and  Lupton  (Joannes 
Coletus  super  opera  Dionysii.  Two  treatises  on  the  hierarchies  of  Dionysius, 
.  .  .  now  first  published  with  a  translation,  introduction,  and  notes  by  J.  H. 
Lupton,  London,  1869),  another  translation  by  John  Parker,  London,  1894. 
A  translation  into  German  of  all  the  writings  by  Engelhardt,  Sulzbach, 
1823,  and  into  French  by  Darboy,  Paris,  1845.  and  Dulac,  Paris,  1865.  Full 
literature  is  given  by  Bardenhewer,  Otto:  "Patrologie,"  Freiburg-in-Baden,  '894, 
pp.  284-290,  English  translation  by  T.  J.  Shahan,  St.  Louis,  1908,  pp.  535- 
541,  and  by  J.  H.  Lupton  in  the  article  on  Dionysius  (i)  in  Smith  &  Wace's 
"Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,"  vol.  I,  Boston,  1877,  pp.  841-848;  see  also 
Siebert,  Otto:  "Die  Metajjhysik  und  Elhik  des  Pseudo-Dionysius  Areopagita, 
Dissertation,"  Jena,  1894;  and  Harnack's  "Dogmcngcschichtc,"  especially  II, 
pp.  423/.,  3d  cd.,  English  translation,  vol.  IV,  Boston,  189S,  pp.  338/. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  345 

ness,"  "unity,"  "freedom  from  division,"  "power,"  "ultimate 
causality,"  "light,"  and  "the  source  of  all  light,"  etc'  Evil 
is  a  non-existent  quantity,  a  weakness,  an  absence  of  strength.^ 
Not  even  the  demons  are  really  evil  in  themselves  and  by 
nature,^  and  all  being  in  its  phenomenal  existence  is  relatively 
good,  but  to  become  absolutely  good  must  strive  to  shake  off 
the  mutable  and  separable  and  become  again  one  with  God, 
from  whom  all  things  spring. 

God  is  therefore  "good"  as  the  metaphysical  source  of  all 
being,  and  in  strict  logic  there  is  no  evil  and  there  is  no  good,  but 
only  relative  grades  of  existence.  The  hierarchy  is  useful,  not 
as  an  ethical  training  and  teaching  organization,  but  simply  as 
a  ladder  by  which  men  are  led  up  from  the  divided  and  visible 
to  the  undivided  and  invisible.  The  Scriptures  are  for  Dionysius 
useful  as  the  revelation  of  the  source  of  all  being,  and  indeed  they 
are  the  only  source,  as  all  our  thinking  and  acting  is  vain  and 
empty.*  In  the  "Mystic  theology"  Dionysius  is  absolutely  out- 
spoken: salvation  is  a  sinking  of  the  soul  in  God,  a  becoming  one 
with  God  in  metaphysical  sense.  Salvation  is  the  imparting  of 
God  to  the  soul  in  fuller  measure,  and  Jesus  is  the  intermediary 
by  whom  the  inexpressible  is  given  expression.  All  the  contra- 
dictions and  extravagances  of  Neoplatonism,  together  with  its 
profound  longings  and  almost  psychopathic  ecstasy  are  found 
in  Dionysius. 

The  mysticism  of  the  pseudo-Areopagite  is  almost  wholly 
metaphysical  and  intellectual.  But  under  cover  of  the  developed 
ritual  and  organization  of  the  church  this  metaphysical  interest 
is  cleverly  substituted  for  the  religious  and  ethical  life. 

The  essence  of  Roman  Catholic  piety  as  developed  under  a 
monastic  papacy  was  the  absolute  submission  of  the  soul  to 
authority.  This  authority  was  thought  of  as  divine  but  incor- 
porated in  the  hierarchy.     The  ethics  of  this  development  have 

'  irepl  Odwv  ovoixaruv,  IV  :  ijf.  ^  Tcpl  Beluv  dvo/xdruv,  IV  :  20. 

3  AW   oCre  ol  dalfj-oves  (pv<rei  KaKol,  and  again,  E^  5^  ovk  del  KaKol,  06  <f>ij(rei 
KaKol,  MPG,  III,  724  D.  and  725  B,  vepl  Oeioiv  'Ovofidruv,  IV  :  23. 
*  irepl  edwv  dvofidruv,  I  :  2-3,  and  irepl  ovpavlas  lepapx^ii,  I  :  i. 


346  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

therefore  their  specific  type.  While  on  the  other  hand  the  es- 
sence of  Neoplatonic  and  mystic  piety  is  the  attainment  of  the 
divine,  and  obedience  and  submission  may  or  may  not  be  means 
to  that  end,  but  do  not  constitute  its  life  and  essence.  There 
is  a  certain  haughty  individualism  always  present  in  mysticism, 
and  it  was  a  triumph  of  diplomacy  for  the  Roman  hierarchy  that 
as  it  subdued  the  intense  individualism  of  the  ascetic  ideal,  and 
forced  it  into  the  modified  communism  of  the  monastery,  so 
also  it  understood  how  to  harness  the  haughty  individual  aspira- 
tions of  Neoplatonism,  in  men  like  Gregory  of  Nyssa  and  the 
pseudo-Dionysius,  to  the  chariot  of  a  political  organization 
whose  formative  impulse  was  obedience. 

Yet  this  mysticism  always  remains  a  foreign  and  troublesome 
intrusion.  It  is  profoundly  so  in  Augustine,  where  the  mystic 
elements  clash  discordantly  with  his  truly  ethical  system  of 
thought.  The  language  of  Paul,  with  its  ethical  dualism  and 
its  relative  underestimate  of  the  worth  of  this  life,  has  been  the 
loop-hole  by  which  Neoplatonic  mysticism  has  inserted  itself 
into  the  Christian  synthesis;  and  profound  misinterpretations 
of  the  Logos  teachings  of  the  fourth  Gospel  have  made  the 
invasion  easy. 

At  the  same  time,  probably  the  real  hold  that  mysticism, 
in  its  philosophical  sense,  had  upon  the  Roman  hierarchy, 
came  with  the  rite  and  cult,  whose  history  is  linked,  as  we 
have  seen,  with  the  pagan  mystery.  Dionysius  and  Maximus 
the  Confessor  made  the  rites  and  worship  of  the  church  the 
commentary  upon  the  dogmatic  teaching  which  was  needed  by 
the  unlearned  and  incompletely  instructed,  and  thus  introduced 
Neoplatonic  speculation  into  the  life  of  the  church  even  for  those 
who  had  no  real  interest  in  the  speculation.* 

The  traditions  of  the  monastery  carried  out  of  Egypt  an  elabo- 
rate sacramental  apparatus.  The  binding  together  of  the 
papacy  and  the  monastery  thrust  these  sacramental  and  cult 

'  For  brief  discussion,  sec  article,  "Mystagogischc  Theologic,"  by  Ferdinand 
Kattenbusch,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realcncykiopiidie,"  vol.  XHI,  Leipsic,  1903, 
pp.  612-622;  with  references  to  his  "Lchrbuch." 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  347 

elements  into  the  foreground,  and  with  them  the  memory  of 
the  mystical  teaching  closely  identified  with  the  monastic 
aspiration.*  In  this  work  the  main  figure  for  the  Western  church 
was  also  Dionysius  the  Areopagite.  Thus  in  his  "Coelestial 
Hierarchy"  we  see  the  idealized  picture  of  the  actual  ecclesias- 
tical system,  as  it  had  worked  itself  out  in  Syria,  in  Asia  Minor, 
and  the  Eastern  provinces,  toward  the  close  of  the  fourth  and 
the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century. 

The  triumph  of  monasticism  was  marked  not  only  in  the 
reformation  of  the  Roman  hierarchy  under  Hildebrand,  but 
by  the  rise  of  the  mendicant  orders  (Dominicans,  Franciscans, 
etc.^).  The  religious  life  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  re- 
ceived not  only  new  impulse  but  a  new  unity.  This  unity  was 
gained  by  the  absorption  and  adaptation  into  the  intellectual 
structure  of  scholasticism,  of  mystical  elements,  which  in  them- 
selves have  nothing  in  common  with  the  intellectually  organizing 
spirit  of  scholasticism.  The  work  of  thus  incorporating  these 
elements  was  much  advanced  by  the  really  great  and  interesting 
Hugo  of  St.  Victor.^ 

When  Harnack  calls  Hugo  of  St.  Victor  the  most  influential 

•For  discussion  of  "Monchthum  und  Mystik"  in  the  Greek  church,  see 
Ferdinand  Kattenbusch's  "Lehrbuch  der  vergleichende  Konfessionskunde," 
vol.  I,  Freiburg-in-Baden,  1892,  pp.  522-542. 

'  See  for  brief  ethical  estimate,  pp.  357,  358. 

'  Hugues  de  Saint  Victor  was  born  about  1097  and  died  1141  in  either  Flanders 
or  Saxony.  He  was  weakly  and  from  the  first  devoted  himself  to  learning,  and 
was  a  life-long  monk  in  the  Benedictine  order.  His  works  are  collected  (together 
with  much  dubious  material)  in  the  reprint  of  the  Rouen  edition  of  1684  in 
Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  tomi  175-177.  The  biographical  material  is  collected  in 
"Histoire  litt^raire  de  la  France,"  torn.  12,  Paris,  1830;  O.  Zockler's  article  in 
Herzog-Hauck's  "  Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  VHI,  Leipsic,  1900,  pp.  436-445, 
English  translation,  vol.  V,  New  York,  1909,  pp.  390-392,  is  an  admirable 
resume  of  his  work  and  teaching.  The  student  of  ethics  will  turn  with  most 
interest  to  "  Institutiones  in  Decalogum  legis  Dominicae,"  "  De  sacramentis 
Christian3efidei,""DearcaNoe  moraU,"  "Dearca  Noe  mystica,"  "De  vanitate 
mundi,"  but  cannot  afford  to  neglect  his  very  influential  mystical  writings,  found 
in  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  176,  cols.  881-998.  The  large  literature  can  be 
seen  gathered  in  the  modern  histories  of  the  Christian  church  (W.  Moller,  Ph. 
Schaff,  or  Kurtz-Bonwetsch-Tschackert).  Of  the  "Victorines,"  he  was  the 
greatest. 


348  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

theologian  of  the  twelfth  century/  he  doubtless  is  right,  but  for 
the  student  of  ethics  his  interest  is  almost  wholly  his  place  as  the 
formulator  and  interpreter  of  a  "mystical  orthodoxy,"  and  here 
ethics  plays  a  poor  part. 

There  is  almost  no  element  of  Hugo  of  St.  Victor  that  may 
not  be  directly  traced  to  Maximus  the  Confessor,  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite,  or  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena.  The  point  of  view  is 
that  faith  must  be  comprehended,  but  not  with  the  intellect  only, 
but  in  the  last  analysis  by  direct  and  immediate  vision.  That 
God  is  one  is  the  truth  by  which  we  are  illuminated  and  made 
perfect.^  Love  to  our  neighbor  has  two  aspects:  the  one  is 
present  and  temporal,  the  other  is  the  sharing  with  him  the 
vision  which  is  eternal.^  Obedience  is  the  fundamental  virtue, 
because  only  by  obedience  do  we  know  the  operation  of  grace.* 

The  border  line  between  dogmatics  and  ethics  is  not  a  sharp 
one,  but  to  dogmatics  rather  than  to  ethics  belongs  the  elaborate 
discussion  of  the  fall  of  man  and  angels  and  God's  relation  to 
evil.^  The  conclusion  is  that  God  is  not  responsible  for  man's 
activity  within  the  rather  narrow  range  left  to  his  free-will,' 
although,  of  course,  he  foresaw  the  consequences.  Original  sin 
is  in  the  fact  of  inherited  lusts,  which  are  always  pain,  and  may 
be  pain  and  guilt  and  ignorance  which  lead  us  inevitably  to 
offend  God.^ 

As  in  all  the  mystic  scholastics  of  a  certain  type  the  sacraments 
assume  the  magic  character  of  a  medium  by  which  the  soul  is 

'  Harnack's  "Dogmengeschichte,"  vol.  II,  p.  346,  3d  ed.,  English  translation, 
vol.  VI,  Boston,  1899,  p.  44. 

^  "  Institutiones  in  Decalogum,"  cap.  i. 
'  "  Institutiones  in  Decalogum,"  cap.  2. 

*  "  Obedientiam  exhibe,  gratiam  intellige,  vcritatem  agnosce."  ("  Institutiones 
in  Decalogum,"  cap.  i.) 

*  "Summa  Sententiarum,"  tract  III,  cap.  1-15.  The  genuine  character  of 
the  sentences  is  assumed  quite  uncritically  by  the  present  writer;  see  for  a 
critique,  Heinrich  Denifle  in  "Archiv  fiir  Gcschichte  des  Mittelalters,"  vol.  Ill, 
1887,  pp.  634-640. 

*  Cap.  8-9. 

'  Cap.  10-12.  Cf.  also  "Dialogues  de  Sacramentis  legis,"  MPL,  torn.  176, 
col.  26. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  349 

cleansed  for  the  spiritual  vision.  Jesus  is  baptized  by  John, 
not  that  he  needed  baptism,  but  to  sanctify  the  water,  so  that  its 
use  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity  might  confer  remission  of  sin/ 

The  unethical  character  of  such  outward  magic  means  of 
grace  has  hardly  even  yet  dawned  upon  Protestantism,  which 
took  over  much  of  the  sacramentarianism  of  mystical  scholasti- 
cism (Hugo,  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  Tauler),  because  of  a  sup- 
posed affinity  with  the  inwardness  of  mysticism. 

In  truth,  however,  the  mysticism  of  Hugo  of  St.  Victor  is  not 
a  really  Protestant  inwardness  toward  which  the  logic  of  Abelard 
unconsciously  moved.  Abelard,  as  we  have  seen,  had  the  full 
assurance  that  faith  and  reason  were  in  ultimate  harmony. 
Hugo  is  a  mystic  because  he  despairs,  in  point  of  fact,  with 
regard  to  reason  reaching  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  would 
substitute  immediate  vision  for  mediating  reason.  Hence  the 
whole  ethics  centres  about  humility,  which  meant  for  the  Middle 
Ages  surrender  to  authority.^  The  experience  upon  which  the 
religious  life  is  built  is  not  the  reaction  of  the  whole  personality 
upon  our  world,  but  the  immediate  ecstatic  vision  of  ourselves 
and  others,  guaranteed  to  us  by  church  and  sacrament.^  This 
"inwardness"  is  therefore  the  very  opposite  of  evangelical 
freedom,  and  even  when  it  seems  most  to  resemble  it  remains  a 
stranger  to  its  spirit.^ 

In  such  ecstatic  experiences  assurance  of  salvation  was  ob- 
tained, and  in  the  sacraments  the  grace  is  conveyed  to  the  par- 
taker which  makes  such  experience  possible. 

*  "Summa  Sent.,"  tract  V,  cap.  i.  The  whole  discussion  of  sacraments  is 
interesting,  but  concerns  dogmatics  rather  than  ethics.  See  "De  Sacramentis 
legis  naturalis  at  scriptae  "  and  the  "Summa  Sententiarum,"  tractati  IV  to  VII. 
Cf.  also  Harnack:  "Dogmengeschichte,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  488,  3d  ed,  English  transla- 
tion, Boston,  1899,  vol.  VI,  p.  219. 

*  Cf.  "De  fructibus  carnis  et  spiritus,"  where  love  springs  from  the  root 
humility  as  luxury  springs  from  pride.     Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  176,  cols.  997  jf. 

^  Cf.  "De  sacramentis,"  lib.  I,  pars.  Ill,  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  176, 
cols.  217-234. 

*  It  was  this  essential  misunderstanding  that  led  Luther  to  his  overestimate  of 
the  train  of  reflection  found  in  the  little  book  called  since  his  day  "Teutsche 
Theologie." 


3SO  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

In  Hugo  is  seen  also  the  subtile  ascetic  quality  which  makes 
Middle-Age  mysticism  attractive  to  poetic  and  artistic  natures. 
The  rude  north  was  awakening  to  a  new  art  life.  The  gloom 
of  the  forest  was  to  be  idealized  in  splendid  cathedral  arches, 
and  the  songs  of  the  south,  chastened  and  solemnized,  were  to 
stijnulate  to  an  art  expression  the  north  has  made  peculiarly 
her  own. 

As  in  the  sacraments,  so  in  the  service.  Hugo  sees  a  method 
by  which  the  emotional  life  is  awakened,  and  the  clothing  of 
the  priest  and  the  details  of  the  ritual  assume  a  grea.t  importance 
for  him.^  At  this  point  we  see  again  the  hierarchy  carrying 
artistic  culture  to  the  north,  and  awakening  in  the  forming 
national  life  aspirations  for  beauty  and  harmony,  which  it 
sought  to  gratify  in  ornate  service,  in  splendid  churches,  and 
in  the  high  cultivation  of  monastic  solitude.  All  of  this  marks  a 
strange  contradiction  within  the  message  of  the  Roman  church, 
because  contempt  of  life  and  world-flight,  together  with  asceti- 
cism and  tears,  comport  but  ill  with  the  splendor  and  grace  the 
hierarchy  unfolded.^ 

At  bottom  mystic  scholasticism  has  no  really  original  ethical 
contribution  to  make.  The  virtues  are  the  theological  virtues 
expounded  in  connection  with  the  familiar  Aristotelian  and 
Platonic  lists.  The  centre  of  gravity  is  shifted  to  the  knowledge 
of  God  as  ultimate  reality,  gained  not  by  reason  or  revelation 
to  the  reason,  but  by  immediate  contacts  of  the  soul  with  God, 
which  contacts  are  historically  for  Roman  Catholic  piety  only 
to  be  genuinely  gained  within  the  circle  of  experiences  vouchsafed 
by  the  church. 

In  the  writings  of  Innocent  III,^  for  instance,  we  see  the 

'  Cf.  "Expositio  in  Regulam  beati  Augustini,"  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  176, 
cols.  881-924. 

'  For  Hugo's  attitude  to  the  world,  see  "De  area  Noe  morali,"  lib.  I,  cap.  i, 
and  "De  vanitate  mundi,"  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  176,  cols.  619-621  and  703-740. 
It  received  classic  expression  in  Innocent  III.  See  p.  353- 

'  Lothar,  Count  of  Conti,  1160-1216  (as  Pope  Innocent  III  from  1198-1216), 
was  the  guardian  of  Frederic  II.  His  writings  are  most  numerous;  cf.  Migne, 
"Pat.  Lat.,"  tomi  214-217.     The  works  that  concern  us  most  are  found  in  the 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS   ETHICS  351 

strange  admixture  of  mystical  elements,  with  world-flight  as 
the  climax  of  the  religious  life  on  the  one  side  and  the  outspoken 
ambition  to  rule  the  world  and  subdue  to  the  papacy  all  secular 
thrones  on  the  other.  And  in  no  one  is  this  combination  seem- 
ingly more  influential  and  along  all  the  lines  upon  which  Catholic 
piety  moves. 

Any  Protestant,  for  instance,  who  has  stood  watching  the 
strange,  and  to  him  meaningless,  postures  and  kneelings  of  the 
mass  would  do  well  to  turn  to  Innocent  Ill's  "  Mysteries  of  the 
Altar."  ^  For  the  understanding  of  Roman  Catholic  piety  on 
a  certain  level  of  culture  there  is  no  literature  more  informing 
than  Innocent  III.  He  is  almost  as  representative  of  the  piety 
of  the  Middle  Ages  as  Thomas  Aquinas  is  of  its  learning. 

Mysticism  has  deeply  affected  that  type  of  piety,  and  the 
secret  is  found  rather  in  its  sacramentarianism  than  in  its  specu- 
lative philosophy.  Speculative  mysticism  would  have  had  but 
little  influence,  probably,  upon  the  Western  type  of  thought 
had  it  not  been  linked  with  the  cult  by  Dionysius  the  Areopagite 
and  with  the  sacramental  machinery  by  Hugo  of  St.  Victor  and 
Innocent  III.^ 

That  mystic  elements  in  the  very  narrowest  sense  were  thus 
incorporated  cannot  be  denied.    The  goal  is  to  know  God  as 

fourth  volume  (torn.  217):  "Sermones,"  cols.  313-690;  "Dialogus  inter  Deum  et 
peccatorem,"  cols.  691-702;  "De  contemptu  mundi,"  cols.  701-746;  "Libellus 
de  eleemosyna,"  cols.  745-762;  "Encomium  charitatis,"  cols.  761-764;  and  "De 
sacrificio  missae,"  cols.  763-916.  The  other  volumes  are  his  letters  and  decrees 
and  various  papers,  "Regesta  sive  Epistolae."  For  the  enormous  literature,  see 
the  standard  church  histories,  or  the  article,  "Innocenz  III,"  by  Carl  Mirbt,  in 
Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  IX,  Leipsic,  1901,  pp.  1 12-122, 
English  translation  in  the  new  Schaff-Herzog  "Encyclopaedia,"  vol.  V,  New 
York,  1909,  pp.  498-502. 

*  "  Mysteriorum  evangelicae  legis,  et  sacramenti  eucharistiae,"  lib.  VI,  in 
Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  217,  cols.  763-916  ("  De  sacro  altaris  mysterio  "  or 
"  De  sacrificio  missae  "). 

^  C/.  "De  sacro  altaris  mysterio,  Prologus":  "Tria  sunt,  im  quibus  prascipue 
divina  lex  consistit:  mandata,  promissa,  et  sacramenta.  In  mandatis  est 
meritum,  in  promissis  est  praemium,  in  sacramentis  est  adjutorium."  The  im- 
portance of  the  sacrament,  therefore,  being  that  it  enables  us  to  keep  the  com- 
mandments and  to  obtain  the  promises.     (MPL,  tom.  217,  col.  773  B.) 


352  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

ultimate  being,  and  that  immediately.  The  world  is  evil,  God 
only  is  really  good  that  is  "  reality."  Thus  in  "  De  contemptu 
mundi"  the  whole  ethics  centres  about  the  attempt  to  slay 
pride,  which  is  the  head  and  root  of  all  sin,*  and  by  making  man 
humble  to  exalt  him  to  God. 

The  despondency  of  much  literary  Christian  activity  probably 
misrepresents  the  average  Christian  thought  and  feeling.  The 
oppressed  classes  in  early  years  were  not  on  the  whole,  probably, 
as  miserable  as  the  few  cultured  ones  among  them,  who  could 
alone  voice  the  discontent.  For  culture  makes  the  soul  sensitive 
to  its  sorrows.  But  from  Augustine  to  Innocent  III  even  the 
prosperous  thought  it  a  religious  frame  of  mind  to  feel  contempt 
for  the  joys  of  life  and  to  speak  meanly  of  man.  This  abnor- 
mality, based  upon  Ecclesiastes  and  misunderstandings  of  Job 
and  isolated  passages  of  Scripture,  is  classically  formulated  by 
Innocent  III  and  some  of  the  mystics,  and  has  passed  over  into 
the  quasi-Protestantism  of  Puritanism  in  England  and  Pietism 
on  the  Continent.^ 

The  test  of  goodness  not  being  normal  and  healthy  relation- 
ship to  one's  world,  but  metaphysical  identification  with  an 
eternal  reality,  man  is  in  a  very  bad  way;  for  whereas  "  the  stars 
were  made  from  fire,"  and  the  atmosphere  and  winds  from  the 
air,  and  birds  and  fishes  from  water,  man  and  vegetables  were 
made  from  earth  !^  He  is  utterly  corrupt  both  morally  and 
physically.  How  utterly  physically  sin  is  conceived  one  sees  in 
the  crass  coarseness  of  Innocent  III  in  describing  original  sin  * 
in  its  origin. 

All  the  miseries  of  life  as  described  by  Innocent  are  not  just 

'  Prologus,  "De  contemptu  mundi." 

*  The  hymnology  of  the  Protestant  churches  is  particularly  marred  by  this 
fundarruentally  irreligious  conception. 

'  "De  contemptu  mundi,"  lib.  I,  cap.  2. 

*  "De  contemptu  mundi,"  lib.  I,  cap.  5  :  ".  .  .  quo  cibo  conceptus  nutriatur 
in  utero.  Profecto  sanguine  menstruo,  qui  cessat  ex  femina  post  conceptum, 
ut  ex  eo  conceptus  nutriatur  in  femina.  Qui  fertur  esse  tarn  dctestabilis  et 
immundus,  ut  ex  ejus  contactu  frugcs  non  gcrmincnt,  arescant  arbusta,  moriantur 
hcrbx."  etc.,  etc.     (MPL,  torn.  217,  col.  704  C-D.) 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  353 

so  many  challenges  to  a  battle  with  unrighteousness  as  they 
are  now  becoming  to  the  modern  worid,  nor  yet  are  they  evidences 
of  the  sure  coming  of  a  just  judge  and  ruler  as  they  were  to 
Judaism  and  apocalyptic  types  of  Christian  thought  in  the  eariy 
days;  they  are  to  him  but  proofs  of  the  necessity  to  seek  in  the 
sacraments  and  alms-giving  certainty  that  these  miseries  will 
buy  us  eternal  joy/ 

The  misery  of  the  slave,  so  graphically  described,  no  more 
awakens  in  Innocent  than  in  Aristotle  the  feeling  that  the 
slave  would  yet  be  freed  by  a  great  deliverer,^  but  only  forms  one 
more  proof  that  man  has  to  flee  the  present  and  seek  the  future. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  systematic  ethics  in  Innocent  III 
is  contained  in  the  second  book  of  the  "De  contemptu  mundi." 
There  sins  are  catalogued  and  rebuked.  Cupidity,  avarice, 
partiality  or  respect  of  persons,'  selHng  of  justice,  gluttony, 
drunkenness,  luxury,"  unnatural  vice,  ambition,  pride,  arrogance, 
extravagance  in  dress  and  ornaments,  uncleanness  of  heart,  and 
all  the  evil  consequences  are  discussed  and  denounced,  and  the 
eternal  consequences  are  set  forth.  At  the  same  time  the  cata- 
logue reads  rather  like  an  indictment  of  the  Creator  than  an 
attempt  to  overcome  the  evil  by  the  presentation  of  the  good. 
The  tract  belongs,  in  fact,  to  the  gloomy  and  despondent  view 
of  life  so  generally  found  in  connection  with  ascetic  religion. 
The  ethics  is  negative  and  the  morality  savors  sadly  of  personal 
desire  for  individual  extrication. 

'  Cf.  the  crassness  of  this  conception  in  the  little  book,  "  Libellus  de  elee- 
mosyna":  "...  quia  Deus  per  eleemosynam  maculas  peccatorum  eliminat, 
et  sordes  abluit  vitiorum.  Eleemosyna  quidem  est  indigenti  pietatis  intuitu 
subvenire;  cujus  quantus  sit  fructus,  Scriptura  sacra  demonstrat.  Nam  elee- 
mosyna mundat,  eleemosyna  liberal,  eleemosyna  redimit,  eleemosyna  protegit, 
eleemosyna  postulat,  eleemosyna  impetrat,  eleemosyna  perficit,  eleemosyna 
benedicit,  eleemosyna  justificat,  eleemosyna  resuscitat,  eleemosyna  salvat." 
(MPL,  tom.  217,  col.  747  A.) 

^  "De  contemptu  mundi,"  lib.  I,  cap.  17. 

^"Clamat  pauper  et  nullus  exaudit,  loquitur  dives  et  omnes  applaudunt." 
"De  contemptu  mundi,"  lib.  II,  cap.  4.     (MPL,  tom.  217,  col.  718  D.) 

*  Against  which  he  writes  strongly:  "Every  age,  every  sex,  every  grade  of 
society,  old  and  young,  it  invades  and  corrupts."  Lib.  II,  cap.  21.  (MPL,  tom. 
217,  col.  725  B-C.) 


354  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Thus  also  in  the  tract  on  alms-giving  ^  this  virtue  is  placed 
before  even  fasting,^  but  not  because  it  has  social  meaning  or 
aids  in  the  redemption  of  the  world,  but  because  of  its  saving 
potency  for  the  individual's  soul.  True  it  must  be  done  in 
love,^  and  in  purity  of  life  and  conduct,  for  alms-giving  in  sin 
does  not  help  us  at.all,^  but  the  end  is  the  soul's  own  felicity  and 
it  must  be  in  obedience  to  rule.^ 

No  wonder  that  the  alms-giving  of  the  Middle  Ages  corrupted 
both  the  givers  and  the  receivers. 

As  throughout  the  Roman  Catholic  ethics,  there  is  a  strange 
conflict  between  antagonistic  conceptions  of  life  when  marriage 
comes  into  view.  The  otherwise  beautiful  ethics  of  the  marriage 
state  proclaimed  by  Innocent  III,^  like  all  the  subsequent  teach- 
ing of  Rome,  is  marred  by  really  pathological  estimates  of  the 
natural  functions  of  healthy  men  and  women. 

On  the  one  hand  marriage  is  made  a  sacrament  and  treated 
as  the  sweetest  image  of  the  holiest  relationship  of  God  to  his 
church  (following  Paul),  and  on  the  other  it  is  denounced  as  a 
sad  concession  to  man's  fallen  and  wicked  condition.^  The 
truth  being  that  the  Roman  interest  in  celibacy  has  always  had 
a  political  side.  To  possess  an  army  of  men  cut  off  from  the 
natural  ambitions  of  the  family  and  devoted  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  Roman  imperialism  could  not  but  be  attractive  to  men 
like  Gregory  VII  and  Innocent  III,  whose  real  faith  was  in 
force  and  power  for  the  organization,  however  much  they  might 
genuinely  admire  gentleness  and  meekness  in  the  individual. 
Hence  it  was  that  the  imperial  ethics  of  Rome  sought  eagerly 
alliance  with  the  ascetic  world-fleeing  ethics  of  the  monastery. 

To  comprehend  the  development  of  the  mystico-ascetic  ethics 

'  "Libellus  de  eleemosyna."  Migne,  "  Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  217,  cols.  745-762. 

*"Bonum  est  jcjunium,  sed  melior  est  eleemosyna,"  cap.  4.  (MPL,  torn. 
217,  col.  752  D.)  '"De  eleemosyna,"  cap.  5. 

*  "De  eleemosyna,"  cap.  3.  *  "De  eleemosyna,"  cap.  5. 

•(?/■.  "De  quadripartita  specie  nuptiarum."  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  tom.  217, 
cols.  921-968. 

^  Whether  this  contradiction  is  fundamental  in  Paul  is  a  mooted  historical 
question.     See  p.  77. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  355 

within  the  church  of  the  Middle  Ages  we  must  glance  at  the 
rise  of  the  orders  whose  compromises  with  Roman  imperialism 
involved  both  contracting  parties  in  many  contradictions/ 
Without  question  the  whole  development  was  grounded  in  a 
very  serious  attempt  to  conform  to  the  supposed  ideals  of  the 
early  church,  nor  can  it  be  that  words  of  Scripture  and  distinct 
positions  set  forth  by  Biblical  writers  (Paul  and  Apocalypse) 
seemed  to  bear  out  some  of  the  most  grotesque  perversions  of 
the  evangelical  message. 

In  the  tenth  century  monasticism  was  moved  by  the  general 
spirit  of  reform  and  became  once  more  a  potent  force  in  the 
hierarchical  church.  The  old  Benedictine  orders  had  been  re- 
organized through  the  efforts  of  Berno  of  Clugny,  and  the  rise 
of  the  congregations  of  Cluny,  whose  work  in  purifying  the 
monasteries  lasted  over  a  century,^  further  emphasized  the 
social  character  of  the  monastic  life.  At  the  same  time  the 
attempt  to  strengthen  the  cloister  by  association  seemed  to 
weaken  discipline,  and  so  a  compromise  was  attempted  by  the 
Vallombrosian  order  (founded  in  the  Vallis  umbrosa)  which  was 
the  first  order,  as  far  as  we  know,  to  introduce  a  lay  element,  not 
so  strictly  bound,  that  the  monks  proper  might  live  the  more 
strictly  contemplative  life.  This  is  interesting  as  pointing  to  the 
fact  that  the  motive  to  founding  lay  brotherhoods  was  still 
rather  the  vita  content plativa  than  the  social  purpose.     These 

*  Besides  the  standard  church  histories  and  the  Hterature  referred  to  on  p.  216, 
see  special  histories  of  the  orders,  as  by  Wadding,  Lucas:  "Annales  Minorum 
seu  trium  Ordinum  a  S.  Francisco  institutorum,"  2d  ed.,  Rome  and  Naples, 
25  vols.,  1731-1860;  Mabillon,  Jean:  "Acta  Sanctorum  Ordinis  S.  Benedicti," 
Venice,  1733,  etc.,  9  vols  (?);  Heimbucher,  Max:  "Die  Orden  und  Kongrega- 
tionen  der  katholischen  Kirche,"  Paderborn,  2d  ed.,  1907  (all  from  Roman 
Catholic  point  of  view);  Hospinianus,  Rodolphus:  "De  Monachis:  hoc  est,  De 
Origine  et  progressu  monachatus,  ac  ordinum  monasticorum,  equitumque 
Militarium,"  1609.  For  abundant  literature,  see  Helyot,  Pierre:  "Histoire  des 
Odres  Religieux  et  Militaires,"  Paris,  1714-1721,  8  vols.;  new  ed.,  Paris,  1792; 
also  in  Migne's  "Encyclopedic  Theologique,"  tomi  20-23,  1846  seq. 

*  For  the  work  and  life  of  Odo  of  Cluni,  see  G.  Griitzmacher's  article,  "Cluni 
und  die  Cluniacenser,"  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  IV,  1898, 
pp.  181-186,  English  translation,  vol.  Ill,  New  York,  1909,  pp.  146-148, 


3S6  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

cloisters  emphasized  for  the  full  membership  silence  and  exceed- 
ingly strict  enclosure. 

But  in  spite  of  all  new  rules  and  constant  reorganization  the 
inevitable  result  of  relative  idleness  and  selfish  attempts  to  save 
one's  own  soul  reappeared,  and  so  there  arose  the  Cistercians, 
founded  by  Robert  of  Molesme,  1098,  at  Citeaux,  with  a  still 
further  elaboration  of  the  congregation  conception,  and  some 
attempt  to  distribute  the  responsibility  by  compelling  the  attend- 
ance of  all  the  abbots  of  the  order  at  a  kind  of  parliament. 
What  might  have  happened  to  these  powerful  and  wealthy, 
yet  really  corrupted  and  corrupting  oligarchies  had  they  gone 
on  without  rivals  it  is  quite  impossible  to  say.  Roman  imperial- 
ism feared  them  while  it  used  them,  and  Innocent  III  was 
directly  responsible  for  the  drastic  action  of  the  Lateran  council 
in  1215  (Canon  13),*  by  which  the  founding  of  new  orders  was 
forbidden,  and  all  wishing  to  enter  the  monastic  life  were  com- 
manded to  submit  to  a  rule  already  approved. 

The  force  of  events,  however,  was  too  strong  for  Innocent  III. 
There  had  existed  from  early  times  what  were  probably  survivals 
of  older  types  of  piety.  They  were  scattered  as  sects  all  over 
the  Christian  world  under  various  names  and  no  doubt  with 
many  shades  of  doctrine.^  Under  the  name  of  the  Cathari, 
or  Pure  Ones,^  they  gathered  force  in  southern  France  and 
Lombardy.  They  sent  out  missionaries  two  by  two,  with 
preaching  and  teaching  of  an  undoubtedly  mystic  piety,  with 
primitive  memories,  and  with  the  New  Testament  taken  igno- 
rantly  and  literally. 

Among  them  the  perjecti  were  bound  to  a  very  strict  asceticism, 
and  the  teachers  enjoyed  a  high  regard  in  the  people's  mind. 
As  over  against  the  wealth  and  aristocracy  of  both  the  Roman 

'  Hefele-Knopfler:  "Conciliengeschichte,"  2d  ed.,  1886,  vol.  V,  §  647,  p.  886. 

*  The  essentially  dualistic  type  of  thought  is  assumed  by  most  historians 
(Littledale-Harnack),  and  is  set  forth  by  Hefelc-Knopfle:  "Conciliengeschichte," 
vol.  V,  2d  ed.,  1886,  §  645,  pp.  827  jf.,on  the  basis  of  the  researches  of  Schmidt, 
Charles:  "Histoire  et  Doctrine  de  la  Secte  des  Catharcs  ou  Albigeois,"  Paris, 
1849,  2  vols. 

'  KaOapol,  whence  the  German  word  for  heretic,  kctzer. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  357 

hierarchy  and  the  alHed  monastic  system  these  sectarians  threat- 
ened to  become  a  people's  church.  Had  Peter  Waldo's  proposals 
to  Alexander  III,  in  11 79,  been  accepted,  the  whole  movement 
might  have  been  as  successfully  bound  to  Rome's  purpose  as 
the  older  movement  was  in  the  days  of  Athanasius.  But  this 
was  not  to  happen  in  exactly  that  way.  Under  Innocent  III, 
however,  the  sectarian  movement  had  grown  beyond  the  power 
of  papal  persuasion,  and  Dominic  de  Guzman  began  the  famous 
movement,  started  on  a  different  level  and  with  different  inspira- 
tions, but  at  the  same  time  by  Francis  of  Assisi,  by  which  the 
cloistered  monk  became  an  itinerant  friar  and  the  older  Gnostic 
speculative  piety  was  re-enforced  by  the  new  life  of  the  monastic 
reformation. 

In  reading  the  account  of  the  "errors"  and  "heresies"  of 
the  Cathari  and  Albigenses  as  given  by  Hefele,  the  ordinary 
mind  is  at  a  loss  to  see  where  in  its  popular  presentation  the 
message  of  these  sectaries  greatly  differed  from  that  of  St- 
Francis  of  Assisi  ^  (i  182-1226),  save  in  the  more  thorough-going 
acceptance  of  the  dualism  which  underlay  both.  The  two 
orders  rose  out  of  social  purpose,  and  had  their  strength  in  the 
missionary  zeal  with  which  they  sought  to  advance  the  interests 
of  the  kingdom  as  they  saw  it  in  the  hierarchy.  Their  success 
was  so  immediate  and  their  loyalty  to  Rome  was  so  unquestion- 
able that  in  spite  of  the  Canon  XIII  of  Lateran  both  orders  were 
launched  and  soon  were  as  petted  and  as  spoiled  as  all  the  others. 
The  mystic  speculative  ethics,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  part  of 
the  teaching  of  the  two  famous  Dominicans,  Albertus  Magnus 
and  Thomas  Aquinas,  but  did  not  organize  their  thought.  In 
the  Franciscan  teacher  Bonaventura  the  systematic  and  intellect- 
ual elements  fall  into  the  background  and  the  mystic  piety  does 
actually  control  the  system. 

The  fact  that  this  mystic  type  of  piety  has  been  from  so  early 
a  date  a  possession  of  the  church,  and  that  it  has  certain  aesthetic 

'  CJ.  the  admirable  life  by  Paul  Sabatier:  "Vie  de  S.  Franfois  d'Assisi,"  8th 
ed.,  1894.  Exceedingly  well  translated  into  English  by  Mrs.  Louise  S.  Hough- 
ton, New  York,  1894. 


358  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

leanings  which  enable  it  very  readily  to  ally  itself  with  religious 
sentiment  and  feeling,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  it  has  been  a 
feature  of  many  marked  religious  awakenings,  hides  from  many, 
even  to-day  in  Protestant  circles,  its  essentially  Gnostic  charac- 
ter. On  the  ethical  field  nothing  is  so  remarkable  as  its  studiously 
maintained  lack  of  freshness  and  originality. 

The  two  most  influential  formulators  of  this  method  of 
thought  are  Bernard  of  Clairvaux^  and  Bonaventura,  and 
though  both  men  were  really  great  souls  and  most  extraordi- 
narily useful  as  leaders  of  the  religious  life  of  their  day,  they 
are  painfully  unfruitful  in  the  field  of  systematic  ethics. 

Bernhard,  in  his  five  books  of  pious  direction  to  Pope  Eugene 
III,  moves  in  the  conventional  lines  laid  down  by  the  practical 
life  of  the  monastery.  The  active  life  is  a  concession,  the  real 
life  is  the  contemplative  one.  The  mystic  elements  in  Augustine 
receive  some  new  emphasis,  but  there  is  really  nothing  new  in 
the  treatment.  The  end  of  life  is  the  love  of  God  for  his  own 
sake,  which  is  the  third  stage  of  man's  progress  from  selfish  love 
to  unselfish  love  of  God,  for  his  own  sake.^    The  ascetic  life 

'  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  (1090-1153),  of  good  family  and  with  an  exceedingly 
pious  mother.  He  was  born  at  Fontaines,  near  Dijon,  and  in  the  "  life  "  given  first 
in  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  185,  cols.  225-467  ("Vita,"  liber  primus.  Auctore 
Guillelmo),  are  related  stories  of  early  piety.  He  became  the  reformer  of  the 
monastic  life  through  his  connection  with  the  new  monastery  at  Ctteaux,  and  he 
went  out  from  it  to  found  a  connected  monastery  at  Clairvaux  (Claras-Vallensis), 
and  though  he  never  was  the  actual  head  of  the  order,  as  he  refused  to  leave 
Clairvaux  and  go  back  to  Citeaux,  he  was  the  life  of  the  Cistercian  movement. 
He  was  the  adviser  of  kings  and  popes,  and  really  seated  Innocent  H  upon  the 
papal  throne  by  his  opposition  to  Anaclet  H,  who  was  probably  the  canonically 
elected  Pope.  Of  his  many  genuine  wTitings  those  that  interest  the  student  of 
ethics  most  are  his  letters  (cf.  Epist.  XI  and  XXXIV)  and  "De  consideratione," 
"De  moribus  et  ofl5cio  episcoporum,"  "Liber  ad  milites  Templi  de  laudi  novae 
militiae,"  "Tractatus  de  gradibus  humilitatis  et  superbiae,"  and  the  "Ser- 
mones."  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  tomi  182  and  1S3.  For  wcllnigh  complete 
bibliography,  see  the  admirable  work  of  Leopold  Janauschek:  "Bibliographia 
Bernardina,"  Vienna,  1S91,  and  the  still  useful  monograph  by  Neander:  "Dcr 
hcilige  Bernhard  und  sein  Zcitalter,"  3d  cd.,  Gotha,  1865;  new  edition  by  S.  M, 
Deutsch,  Gotha,  1889,  English  translation  by  Matilda  Wrench,  London,  1843; 
Storrs,  R.  S.,  "  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,"  1892. 

'  "Non  jam  propter  se,  sed  propter  ipsum."  Epist.  XI,  §  8.   (MPL,  182,  1 14  A.) 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  359 

is  the  ideal,  and  to  be  chosen  before  all  other.*  Contemplation 
of  the  mystery  of  God  in  his  oneness  and  threeness  is  of  the 
highest  religious  value.^  The  Song  of  Songs  mystically  inter- 
preted is  the  key  to  heavenly  love  and  its  light  and  meaning, 
and  in  Bernhard's  sermons  on  the  canticles  is  gathered  up  the 
dreamy,  half-sensuous,  half-speculative  rapturous  piety  which 
is  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  the  monastery  life.^ 

There  is  a  threefold  perfection  of  the  soul,  as  is  seen  in  kissing 
the  feet,  the  hands,  and  the  mouth  of  the  Master."  Rhapsody 
and  absorption  in  divine  exercises  form  the  pinnacle  of  the 
religious  life,^  and  the  aesthetic  side  of  the  service  has  great 
significance  and  attraction  for  Bemhard  as  for  Innocent  III." 
It  is  quite  worthy  of  note  how  distinct  a  place  the  sacraments 
have  in  this  type  of  thinking.  They  are  an  aesthetic  means 
toward  the  esctasy  which  is  the  goal.  In  mystic  scholasticism 
the  magic  elements  in  the  sacramental  teaching  are  variously 
emphasized.  In  the  more  intellectual  types  they  are  minimized, 
but  in  the  aesthetic,  sensuous  types  they  almost  become  central.^ 

Bemhard  cannot  be  classed  as  among  the  intellectual  organ- 
izers of  mystic  scholasticism.  Instinctively  he  feared  the  rational 
process,  and  his  attack  upon  Abelard  was,  no  doubt,  a  result  of 
that  fear.  He  was  an  agitator  and  organizer.  His  effective 
work  in  arousing  men  for  the  miserable  crusade  which  cast  a 
shadow  over  his  last  days  is  evidence  of  his  preaching  powers. 
His  influence,  however,  was  religious.    Like  Augustine,  he  was 

'  Epist.  XXIV;  c/.  also  the  tract  "De  gradibus  humilitatis."  Migne,  "Pat. 
Lat.,"  torn.  182,  cols.  941-972. 

2  "De  consideratione,"  lib.  V,  cap.  13.  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  182,  cols.  804- 
805. 

*  "Sermons  in  canticae."     Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.,"  torn.  183,  cols.  779-1198. 

*  "Sermo,"  IV.     (MPL,  183,  796-797-) 
""Sermo.,"  VII,  806-810. 

*  Cf.  the  interesting  little  dialogue  on  the  church  music,  Migne,  "Pat.  Lat.," 
torn.  182,  cols.  1 153-1166. 

'  This  asthetic  element  is  seen  in  Bernhard's  excessive  devotion  to  the  Virgin 
Mary.  Cf.  the  prayer  Dante  puts  into  his  mouth  in  "  Paradise  XXXIII,"  which 
Professor  Marvin  R.  Vincent  calls  "  one  of  the  gems  of  literature."  C/.,  also, 
Vincent,  M.  R.,  "Age  of  Hildebrand,"  chaps.  XVI  and  XVII. 


36o  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

a  religious  genius  of  the  first  class/  but  the  Platonic-mystic  ele- 
ments are  taken  unsystematically. 

This  is  not  the  case,  however,  with  the  great  Seraphic  Doctor,^ 
Bonaventura.  With  him,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
"  Sentences,"  all  is  systematized,  and  everything  said  under 
divisions  of  three  or  seven  or  ten,  sometimes  to  the  obliteration 
of  all  finer  shades  of  difference.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
ethics  he  is  profoundly  disappointing.  The  Stoic  ethics  are  but 
feebly  warmed  by  the  mystic  emotional  piety,  and  there  is  lack 
both  of  intellectual  sharpness  and  of  real  ethical  insight.  The 
scheme  of  the  little  ethical  treatise,  "De  decern  praeceptis," 
illustrates  his  method. 

It  is  divided  into  two  parts.  One  of  these  deals  with  the 
motives  for  keeping  the  commandments,  the  other  with  the 
commandments  themselves  in  general.  Under  part  one  he  sets 
forth  four  main  motives  for  keeping  the  commandments.  First 
the  authority  of  the  law-giver,  because  he  created  us,  rules  us 
and  saves  us.  Secondly,  the  keeping  of  the  commandments 
has  a  threefold  usefulness,  the  imparting  of  the  gifts  (charismata), 
the  revelation  of  Scripture,  and  the  assignment  of  rewards  in 
heaven.    Thirdly,  there  is  a  threefold  peril  in  transgression, 

'  Harnack  calls  him  "Augustinus  redivivus,"  " Dogmengeschichte,"  vol.  Ill, 
3d  ed.,  p.  314;  English  translation,  vol.  VI,  1899,  p.  10. 

-Bonaventura,  Giovanni  di  Fidanza,  1221-1274.  Born  in  Italy  of  humble 
parents,  and  the  champion  of  the  Franciscans  in  their  rivalry  with  the  Domini- 
cans. He  is  said  to  have  been  a  pupil  of  Alexander  of  Hales,  though  this  is  doubt- 
ful. (Hales  died  in  1245.)  His  main  teaching  was  in  Paris,  and  as  general  of  his 
order  he  exercised  a  wide  influence  for  good.  The  editions  of  his  works  most 
cited  are  those  of  Lyons,  7  vols.,  1668;  that  of  A.  C.  Peltier,  Paris,  1864-187 1, 
15  vols.,  and  the  new  edition,  Claras  Aquas,  1882-1902,  10  vols.  "Opera 
omnia  jussu  et  auctoritate  Fleming,  David  P."  In  the  tenth  volume  is  an 
essay  on  the  life  of  Bonaventura,  vol.  X,  pp.  39-73,  with  admirable  condensed 
references  to  all  the  sources  of  information.  The  indices  arc  in  the  fifth  volume 
for  vols.  I  to  IV.  Besides  the  general  ethical  interest  of  the  "Sermones,"  vol.  IX, 
1901,  the  writings  of  special  interest  to  the  student  of  ethics  are  the  comments 
upon  the  sentences  of  the  Lombard  that  deal  with  ethics  especially,  namely,  his 
commentaries  in  "Distinctionem  XXIII,"  and  on  through  the  cardinal  virtues, 
vol.  Ill  (Claras  Aquas  edition),  pp.  469-731.  And  also  in  vol.  V  is  a  neat  little 
ethical  treatise  on  the  Ten  Commandments,  "Opuscula  varia,"  1891,  pp.  307- 
502.     The  mystical  writings  are  gathered  together  in  vol.  VIII,  pp.  3-159. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND   ITS   ETHICS  361 

namely,  we  lose  the  best  of  good  gifts,  we  rush  into  degrading 
sin,  and  deserve  eternal  punishment.  Fourthly,  the  legitimate 
character  of  the  commandments  is  seen  in  that  they  demand 
nothing  that  is  impossible  or  burdensome  or  iniquitous. 

The  second  part  is  given  up  to  a  general  discussion  of  the 
duties  to  our  God  and  our  neighbor,  and  it  lacks  both  grip  and 
freshness.  The  first  table  makes  three  demands,  with  reference 
to  the  triune  God,  and  the  second  table  deals  with  our  relation 
to  man.  The  ethics  are  weak  and  individualistic  and  ever 
haunted  by  the  consciousness  that  the  native  virtues  are  in  the 
second  place  and  are  a  mere  means  to  an  end.^  The  ethics  of 
the  preceding  treatise  on  the  seven  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ^  are 
even  more  confused,  and  mingled  with  the  theological  material 
which  is  always  the  first  interest. 

The  mystical  writings  ^  reveal  nothing  new.  In  the  "  three- 
fold way"  there  is  set  forth  the  threefold  progress  of  the  soul  by 
purgation  and  illumination  to  perfection.  The  way  of  reaching 
this  is  also  threefold,  i.  e.,  by  reading  and  meditation,  by  prayer, 
and  by  contemplation.*  The  "Soliloquium"  is  a  dialogue 
between  a  man  and  his  soul,  and  the  exercises  suggested  remind 
us  painfully  of  the  Indian  fakir,  only  he  does  the  thing  more 
thoroughly  and  more  scientifically.  The  rules  laid  down  are, 
in  fact,  nothing  more  than  the  methods  for  self-hypnotism  by 
concentration  and  auto-suggestion. 

The  cult  of  "Jesus  and  Mary,"  with  all  its  weakening  and 
unethical  motivation  of  life,  pervades  both  the  theology  and  the 
ethics  of  these  mystic  writings.  How  unreal  the  ethics  are  may 
be  seen  in  the  little  tract,  "  Lignum  Vitae,"  ^  which  has  played  a 
great  part  in  Roman  Catholic  piety,  where  sentimental  pity  ex- 
hausts itself  in  vain  longing  and  fruitless  tears.    Indeed  through- 

'  "De  decern  praeceptis,"  collatio  I,  opera  vol.  V  (Claras  Aquas  edition),  pp. 

507-532. 

»  "De  septem  donis  spiritus  sancti,"  opera  vol.  V,  p.  457. 

'  These  are  gathered  together  in  vol.  VII,  pp.  3  to  159  of  the  Claras  Aquas 
edition. 

*  "De  triplici  via,"  vol.  VIII,  opera  omnia,  p.  3. 

*"Opuscula  mystica,"  vol.  VIII,  p.  68. 


362  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

out  Bonaventura  the  strong  feeling  is  that  mysticism  is  a  mere 
disturbing  element  attempting,  indeed,  a  reconstruction  of  the 
thought  without  really  reaching  it. 

THE   ETHICS   OF    "  GERMAN"    MYSTICISM* 

The  so-called  German  mystics  are  in  reality  simply  those  who 
laid  hold  upon  the  metaphysical  mysticism  present  from  Augus- 
tine on  in  Catholicism  and  worked  it  out  in  various  degrees  and 
wnth  different  emphasis.  When  Harnack  identifies  mysticism 
with  Roman  Catholic  piety,  "save  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  not 
■jides  implicita,^^  ^  he  seems  to  the  writer  to  make  the  definition 
of  mysticism  too  wide. 

The  simple,  sweet  trustfulness  of  Francis  of  Assisi  in  his 
loving  attempt  to  do  as  Jesus  and  his  apostles  had  done  had  no 
philosophy  of  ultimate  reality  in  it.  This  trustfulness  and  long- 
ing after  God  is  not  "mystic"  or  "Catholic"  or  "Protestant" 
or  "German,"  it  is  religious,  and  breathes  throughout  all  medi- 
aeval piety  in  its  prayers,  hymns,  and  simple  works  of  mercy  and 
devotion.  Only  when  this  trustfulness  and  longing  unites  itself 
with  a  distinct  theory  of  union  with  the  source  of  all  being  in 
some  metaphysical  sense  do  we  have  the  basis  for  the  extraordi- 

'  The  enormous  literature  of  mysticism  sadly  needs  sifting.  For  the  history 
of  Middle-Age  mysticism,  see  among  the  older  works:  Schmid,  Heinrich:  "Der 
Mysticismus  des  Mittelalters  in  seiner  Entstehungsperiode,"  Jena,  1824;  Preger, 
Wilhelm:  "Geschichte  der  deutschen  Mystik  im  Mittelalter,"  3  parts,  Leipsic, 
1874-1893.  See  also  the  article,  "Mysticism,"  by  Andrew  Seth,  in  "Encyclo- 
pa:dia  Britannica,"  9th  ed.,  Scribner's,  New  York,  1884,  pp.  128-135,  ^"^  ^^^ 
article,  "Theologie,  mystische,"  by  S.  M.  Deutsch,  in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Real- 
encyklopadie,"  vol.  XIX,  Leipsic,  1907,  pp.  631-644,  and  the  several  sections 
in  Harnack's  "Dogmengeschichte,"  especially  vol.  Ill,  3d  ed.,  pp.  392-401; 
English  translation,  vol.  VI,  Boston,  1899,  pp.  97-108;  Gregory,  Eleanor  C: 
"An  Introduction  to  Christian  Mysticism,"  London,  1901;  Swainson,  William 
P.:  "Christian  Mystics,"  vol.  I;  "Francis  of  Assisi,  Saint  and  Mystic,"  London 
1903;  Langenberg,  Rudolph:  "Quellen  und  Forschungcn  zur  Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Mystik,"  Bonn,  1902.  Some  material  also  in  Baron  Friedrich  von 
Hiigel's  "The  Mystical  Element  of  Religion  as  Studied  in  St.  Catherine  of 
Genoa  and  Her  Friends,"  2  vols.,  London  and  New  York,  1909.     See  also  p.  343. 

*  "Dogmengeschichte,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  392,  3d  ed.,  English  translation,  vol.  VI, 
1899,  p.  98. 


SCHOLASTICISM  AND  ITS  ETHICS  363 

nary  development  which  is  alike  constant  in  its  reappearance 
and  monotonous  in  its  inevitable  outcome. 

The  "ethics"  of  the  so-called  German  mystics  is  not  separate 
from  the  ethics  imported  into  the  north  by  the  church.  The 
only  thing  that  seems  in  any  way  characteristic  is  the  over- 
weening individualism,  and  the  dependence  upon  Neoplatonism 
as  interpreted  by  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  And  what  is  most 
striking  is  the  monotony  of  the  teaching.  Love  is  thought  of  as 
feeling;  and  emotion,  ecstasy,  and  rapture  are  means  to  the 
ultimate  knowledge  of  and  union  with  the  final  reality.  No 
genuine  ethics  could  develop  out  of  mysticism  so  defined,  hence 
the  ethics  of  the  mystics  is  simply  what  they  found  in  the  relig- 
ious life  about  them,  thought  of  generally  as  a  means  to  their 
end,  with  the  speculation,  more  or  less  vague,  which  gives  char- 
acter to  mysticism. 

Two  of  the  earliest  works  of  mysticism  on  German  soil  are 
"  Das  fliessende  Licht  der  Gottheit,"  by  Mechthild  of  Magdeburg 
(about  1273),  edited  by  G.  Morel;  "  Offenbarung  der  Schwester 
Mechthild,"  Regensburg,  1861,  in  which  fantastic  piety  is 
mingled  with  metaphysical  phrases,  half  understood,  borrowed 
from  Dionysius.  Nor  can  one  say  much  more  of  Meister  Eck- 
hart  (1260-1329).  Like  Heinrich  Suso  (i 295-1366),  there  is 
nothing  novel  in  their  teaching  save  that  it  is  in  the  language  of 
the  people.  Union  with  God  as  essential  substance,  and  the 
attainment  of  this  union  by  abstraction  and  esctasy,  form  the 
groundwork  of  the  teaching.  In  Johannes  Tauler  (1300-1361) 
the  mysticism  proper  is  mingled  with  aesthetic  and  religious  ele- 
ments, and  Catholic  piety  as  it  developed  on  German  soil,  with 
a  strong  sense  of  the  worth  of  the  soul  and  keen  feeling  of 
separation  from  God  in  conduct,  makes  itself  manifest.  The 
sermons  of  Tauler  are,  however,  Roman  Catholic  and  not 
Protestant,  nor  in  any  sense  a  foretaste  of  real  Protestantism. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  whole  movement  of  the  "  Friends 
of  God,"  identified  with  Nicholas  of  Basle,  and  the  "Brethren 
of  the  Common  Lot,"  with  Gerhard  Groot  (1340-1384).  The 
teachings  of  poverty,  of  communism,  of  self-denial,  etc.,  have 


364  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

underlying  them  what  we  have  seen  was  characteristic  of  mon- 
astic piety  generally.  It  had  no  social  or  ethical  significance 
apart  from  the  general  Roman  Catholic  teaching  at  this  point. 
The  elements  of  inwardness  and  trustful  relationship  with 
God,  which  give  such  books  as  "Teutsche  Theologie"  ^  and  the 
"Imitation  of  Christ"  permanent  value,  are  not  inseparably 
connected  with  the  Neoplatonic  conceptions  which  underlie  them 
both,  and  which  in  the  last  analysis  they  falsely  (historically 
considered)  identify  with  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament. 
In  a  history  of  mysticism  it  would  be  proper  to  trace  the  ethics 
taught  by  the  several  mystics  to  their  source,  but  mysticism  has 
no  important  contribution  of  its  own,  nor  is  it  in  point  of  fact  in 
a  position  to  render  such  service, — for  reasons  already  pointed 
out  (see  page  350).  Hence  we  pass  over  what  is  an  important 
chapter  in  the  history  of  Roman  Catholic  piety  but  which  has 
no  special  ethical  interest.^ 

•  Well  translated  by  Susanna  Winkworth,  "Theologia  Germanica,"  Andover, 
1856,  etc. 

*The  reader  should  recall  the  author's  definition  of  mysticism  (p.  342).  It 
is  the  failure  to  keep  to  some  consistent  definition  of  mysticism  that  renders  most 
discussion  of  it  so  irritating  and  fruitless.  Even  Baron  von  Huegel,  in  his 
interesting  second  volume  on  "The  Mystical  Element  of  Religion,"  is  constantly 
talking  of  elements  common  to  all  religious  experience  as  if  they  were  peculiar  to 
the  mystical  type  of  that  experience. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  AND  ITS  ETHICS 

Note  of  Introdttction.—{a)  General  Conditions  of  the  Reformation;  (6) 
The  Special  Conditions  in  England — I.  The  Ethics  of  the  Fore- 
runners of  the  Reformation— II.  The  Ethics  of  Puritanism— III. 
The  Ethics  of  Anglo-Catholicism— IV.  The  Ethics  of  Independency 
— V.  The  Ethics  of  Philosophical  Protestantism  (in  England). 

NOTE  OF  GENERAL  INTRODUCTION 

THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS   OF  THE  REFORMATION 

It  is  only  for  temporary  human  purpose  that  history  can  be 
divided  into  chapters  and  sections.  The  Reformation,  from  one 
point  of  view  so  dramatic  and  sudden,  was  in  reality  but  the 
fitting  climax  to  a  long  series  of  innovations.  There  are  no 
single  causes  and  no  single  effects.  The  historian  can  only 
describe  the  conditions  under  which  history  works  itself  out. 
In  the  description  great  personalities  will  always  be  in  the  fore- 
ground, partly  because  the  dramatic  element  is  strong  in  us  all, 
but  chiefly  because  every  historical  movement  has  its  highest 
interest  for  us  when  it  becomes  incarnate  n  a  great  personality. 

It  is  alike  vain  and  unscientific  to  ask  whether  history  is  the 
creation  of  great  men  or  of  the  conditions  under  which  all  men 
work.  It  is  neither  one  nor  the  other.  It  is  the  story  of  the 
actions  and  reactions  of  human  purposes  upon  the  conditions 
under  which  alone  those  purposes  can  realize  themselves.  The 
age  that  gives  us  genius  is  not  the  creation  of  that  genius,  but 
an  age  has  only  its  highest  interest  for  us  when  some  child  of 
genius  formulates  and  incarnates  its  manifold  purpose,  and  to 
the  outlooker  the  thousand-and-one  conditions  which  made  the 

3^5 


366  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

work  of  genius  possible  are  hidden  by  the  interest  of  the  per- 
sonality. 

From  one  point  of  view  the  Reformation  may  be  said  to  have 
begun  with  the  Council  of  Constance  (1414),  or  the  nailing  of 
Luther's  theses  to  the  church  door  (15 17)  over  a  hundred 
years  later;  but  these  are  only  important  episodes  in  the  birth  of 
a  new  human  spirit,  steps  which  the  race  in  western  Europe  was 
taking  to  a  larger,  diviner  freedom  and  life.  We  cannot  regard 
it  as  our  special  task  to  describe  the  historical  conditions  that 
made  Wyclif  or  Luther  possible.  The  standard  histories  are 
in  a  much  better  position  to  do  this  than  the  special  historian  of 
ethics.  Nevertheless,  we  must,  however  briefly,  glance  at  the 
outward  conditions  under  which  that  new  world  was  forming, 
which  sought  intellectual  and  ethical  formulation  in  the  Reforma- 
tion period. 

One  of  the  foremost  factors  in  the  determination  of  Europe's 
political  character  was  the  fundamental  struggle  between  the 
East  and  the  West.  In  the  growth  of  Mahometanism  the 
West  was  challenged,  and  the  crusades  bore  this  special  mark 
because,  amid  great  and  growing  diversity  of  tongue,  of  in- 
terest as  well  as  of  race,  religion  still  gave  the  largest  and 
firmest  basis  for  united  action.  Not  that  the  crusades  were 
wholly  religious.  The  most  eloquent  preaching  of  Peter  the 
Hermit  and  the  most  convincing  arguments  of  the  Pope  could 
not  have  aroused  Europe  had  not  material  interests,  such  as 
a  growing  trade,  increasing  population,  and  political  restless- 
ness given  the  crusades  *  an  especial  significance.  As  Europe 
ceased  to  seem  homogeneous  and  began  visibly  to  separate 

'  For  the  literature,  consult  Emerton,  Ephraim:  "Mediaeval  Europe,  814- 
1300,"  Boston,  1894,  chap.  14,  pp.  477-508;  Kugler,  Bernhard:  "Geschichte 
der  Kreuzzuge,"  Berlin,  1880  (in  Wilhelm  Oncken's  "Aligcmcine  Geschichte  in 
Einzeldarstcllungen,"  abt.  II,  vol.  V);  Prutz,  Hans:  "Kulturgeschichte  der 
Kreuzzuge,"  Berlin,  1883;  Henderson,  Ernest  P.:  "Secret  Historical  Documents 
of  the  Middle  Ages,"  book  III  pp.  i^s>  etc.,  London,  1896  (Bohn's  "Antiquarian 
Library");  Robinson,  James  H.:  "An  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Western 
Europe,"  Boston,  1903,  chap.  15;  Duruy,  Victor:  "The  History  of  the  Middle 
Ages"  (English  translation  of  the  12th  edition  by  Whitney,  with  notes  by 
Professor  Adams,  New  York,  1891,  book  VII,  pp.  261-304. 


THE  ENGLISH   REFORMATION  367 

into  organized  and  differing  groups,  trade  routes  and  access 
to  the  sea  became  determining  elements  of  the  social  and  politi- 
cal life.  The  church,  like  imperial  Rome,  had  stamped  a 
certain  cosmopolitan  character  upon  her  agents.  She  alone 
was  in  a  position  to  summon  Europe  to  a  defence  of  Western 
culture.  Yet  even  while  she  did  this,  the  crusades  both  weak- 
ened Rome  and  strengthened  nationality.  They  weakened 
Rome  by  the  exaltation  of  the  military  power  and  by  bringing 
again  an  Eastern  culture  into  direct  contrast  and  contact 
with  her  own  life  (Arabic  scholarship,  etc.).  Nationality  was 
strengthened  by  the  actual  losses  on  the  battle-field  of  the  cos- 
mopolitan military  ruling  class.  The  story  of  the  relationship 
between  commercial  Judaism  and  the  crusades,  and  of  the  grow- 
ing power  of  this  intellectually  and  spiritually  highly  gifted  race 
from  the  time  of  Agobard's  first  anti-semitic  outbursts  (see  page 
290)  to  the  time  of  Reuchlin,  who  was  accused  by  his  Catholic 
enemies  of  being  paid  by  the  Jews,  has  yet  to  be  written.  In- 
stinctively ecclesiasticism  recognized  the  Jews  as  a  rival  power, 
in  that  they  offered  a  commercial  cosmopolitanism  as  a  substi- 
tute for  the  ecclesiastical  bond.  The  enormous  development 
of  trade  routes  and  seaport  towns  due  to  the  crusades  laid  the 
foundation  for  that  new  industrial  Europe  which  is  even  now 
transforming  human  thought  and  ideals. 

The  crusaders  brought  back  from  the  East  new  science,  new 
art,  and  many  new  inspirations,  but  also  new  vices  and  new 
doubts.  On  the  principle  that  the  best  defence  is  a  swift  attack 
the  crusades  were  not  wholly  failures,  although  at  the  end  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  was  still  in  Moslem  hands.  The  crusades  did, 
in  fact,  break  the  power  of  Mahometan  invasion  and  stay  the 
onward  rush  of  Eastern  culture. 

They  also  shook  the  imperial  papacy,  partly  by  their  relative 
failure,  but  still  more  by  transferring  the  power  of  government  to 
the  armed  secular  force.  Heroism  and  demoralization  walked 
hand  in  hand.  The  saint  and  the  runaway  serf  both  fastened 
the  cross  to  their  sleeves,  and  democracy  advanced  as  the  fearful 
mortality  of  the  Eastern  wars  carried  off  the  flower  of  feudalism. 


368  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  trading  free  city  grew  from  the  lowly  beginnings  of  fortified 
camps  and  centres  for  protection  along  the  main  thoroughfares, 
until  it  became  a  menace  to  the  feudal  land-owning  nobility. 
The  Middle  Ages  are  full  of  the  struggle  for  freedom  and  self- 
regulation  on  the  part  of  the  city,  a  struggle  which  not  even  the 
concessions  of  von  Stein  ^  have  yet  quite  ended  in  Germany. 
The  crusades  undoubtedly  aided  the  growth  of  these  centres, 
and  the  seaport  republics,  like  Venice  and  Genoa,  almost  owed 
their  greatest  days  to  the  supplying  the  needs  of  crusading 
armies. 

Feudalism  was  weakened  by  the  encroachments  of  the  free 
city  on  its  life,  and  the  increasing  power  of  nationalism  has 
never  been  a  strength  to  cosmopolitan  imperial  Romanism. 
True  it  is  that  she  has  at  times  played  of!  nation  against  nation, 
but  in  the  end  she  has  always  lost  the  game.  When  one  reads 
of  Cardinal  Richelieu  making  war  one  year  on  the  Huguenots 
and  the  next  year  a  treaty  with  Christian  IV  to  save  what  'was 
left  of  Protestantism  in  the  north  of  Europe,  one  realizes  how 
far  the  national  and  dynastic  interest,  even  in  Roman  Catholic 
France,  outweighed  the  imperial  dreams  of  Rome. 

With  this  feudalism  Roman  Catholicism  is  firmly  knit 
together.  In  every  land  where  feudalism  has  been  overthrown 
her  ecclesiastical  polity  is  an  exotic  (United  States,  England, 
France,  and  even  Italy),  and  the  weakening  of  feudalism  in  the 
lands  she  still  dominates  goes  hand  in  hand  with  diminishment 
of  her  power. 

The  fixing  of  the  final  boundary  between  East  and  West  by 
the  fall  of  Constantinople  (1452)  and  the  recapture  of  Granada 
(1492)  cleared,  as  it  were,  the  way  for  the  internal  revolution, 
which  we  call  the  Reformation.  Men's  minds  were  so  far  set 
at  rest  and  the  fear  of  Moslem  invasion  has  never  since  gravely 
affected  the  nerves  of  Europe.  Now  men  began  to  seriously 
ask  questions  both  of  nature  and  of  history.  The  spread  of  a 
new  spirit  of  inquiry  has  been  called  the  Illumination.     And 

'  Maurenbrccher,  Max.:  "Die  Hohenzollern-Legende,  Kulturbilder  .  .  .  aus 
dem  12  bis  zum  20  Jahrhundert»"  vol.  II,  pp.  624-634,  Berlin,  1905  and  1906. 


THE  ENGLISH   REFORMATION  369 

this  "  Aufklarung"  has  its  own  special  literature.^  It  is  easy  to 
see  how  bitterly  the  small  nobility  felt  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
Reformation,  and  both  in  England  and  Germany  signs  were  not 
lacking  of  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  smaller  aristocracy  to 
make  common  cause  with  the  proletariat  in  their  revolt  against 
feudalism.  It  could,  indeed,  only  be  a  temporary  fellowship,  and 
such  leaders  as  Oldcastle  in  England  and  Franz  von  Sickingen 
in  Germany  soon  found  themselves  hopelessly  outnumbered  by 
the  instant  alliance  of  monarchy,  middle-class,  and  larger 
nobility,  overwhelmed  by  the  dread  of  the  proletariat,  just  as, 
in  the  past,  all  classes  at  Rome  could  be  instantly  united  by  the 
dread  of  a  servile  war. 

The  ignorance  of  Greek  before  the  Illumination  has  probably 
been  overdrawn.  At  the  same  time  the  crusades  and  the  fall 
of  Constantinople  did  undoubtedly  greatly  increase  the  interest 
in  Greek  and  heighten  the  curiosity  as  to  the  sources  of  the 
culture  possessed  only  at  second  hand  by  the  great  scholastics. 
The  break  with  Latin  was  coincident  with  the  rise  of  national 
tongues,  giving  birth  to  their  own  literature.  Dante  in  Italy 
sang  the  scholasticism  of  Thomas  of  Aquinas  in  the  entrancing 
strains  of  a  native  Italian,  and  mingled  with  mediaeval  Aristote- 
lianism  something  of  Cicero's  ethics.  Petrarch  almost  frankly 
tried  to  substitute  the  ethics  of  later  Greece  and  of  Rome  for 
what  passed  as  Christian  ethics.  Boccaccio  had  still  fewer 
scruples,  and,  so  far  as  he  was  at  all  interested  in  ethics,  those 
of  Stoicism  and  Epicurus  were  far  more  to  his  mind  than 
Albertus  Magnus  or  Thomas  Aquinas. 

Yet  the  great  humanists  had  no  wish  to  break  with  the  church. 
Valla,  Erasmus,  and  Reuchlin  needed,  indeed,  more  intellectual 
and  artistic  atmosphere,  but  to  reform  the  church  from  within 
was  their  ideal,  and  the  Reformation  was  the  responsibility  of 
the  church  authorities  rather  than  of  humanism.  Humanists 
had,  they  thought,  but  one  task  and  high  privilege.   To  human- 

'  In  Reuter's  "Geschichte  der  Aufklarung"  the  older  literature  is  given,  and 
in  Robinson's  "Introduction  to  the  "History  of  Western  Europe,"  pp.  352-353. 
additional  English  works  are  given. 


37©  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

ism  was  intrusted  the  new  culture  and  the  new  art  and  the  new 
learning. 

It  is  impossible  now  to  say  whether  any  reformation  of  the 
church  could  have  come  out  of  the  scorn  and  scoff  of  human- 
ism alone.  Certainly,  however,  the  Reformation  in  its  ethical 
earnestness  and  intense,  even  if  often  narrow,  religiousness, 
could  not  have  sprung  from  humanism,  and  was  even  on  its 
finer  sides  misunderstood  and  suspected  by  the  men  trained  in 
humanism. 

It  made  ready  the  way,  however,  for  the  Reformation.  The 
Greek  Testament  was  its  most  precious  gift  to  the  cause.  Save 
for  men  like  Reuchlin,  Hebrew  and  Old  Testament  learning 
would  never  have  stood  where  they  were  when  Luther  and 
others  opened  at  last  the  chained  Bible.  Nor  is  it  just  to  lay 
the  blame  of  the  paganism,  which  is  all  too  apparent  in  the 
pages  of  humanist  writers,  at  the  door  of  humanism.  Reuchlin 
was  no  pagan,  nor  was  Erasmus  one.  Paganism  was  found  in 
Rome  as  well  as  in  humanism.  The  unnatural  vices  and  the 
debauchery  which  soil  some  of  the  pages  of  humanism  were, 
alas,  part  of  the  decay  and  degeneracy  which  long  lack  of  moral 
guidance  had  produced.  There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that 
the  monastery  system,  after  the  heart  had  gone  out  of  it,  was 
the  home  of  the  foulest  sin,  and  needed  no  humanism  to  teach 
it  the  vices  of  Rome  and  Athens.  The  Council  of  Constance 
is  a  standing  witness  to  the  abuses  and  debaucheries  of  the 
existing  ecclesiastical  situation. 

The  fact  was  that  no  intellectual  system  could  save  the  world. 
There  had  to  be  a  new  birth,  a  new  baptism  of  fire  and  earnest- 
ness, a  new  faith  in  things  unseen  and  eternal.  The  Reforma- 
tion has  been  far  too  much  estimated  in  theological  terms. 
Protestant  theology  was  a  distinct  advance  upon  the  scholastic 
systems,  but  rather  in  its  negations  and  omissions  than  in  its 
positive  contribution.  And  in  comparing  the  best  Protestant 
systems  with  the  best  scholastic  ones,  the  student  may  sometimes 
feel  a  distinct  sense  of  disappointment  with  Protestantism.  The 
fact  remains  that  the  Reformation  was  a  new  birth  and  a  new 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  371 

baptism,  both  of  what  we  now  call  Protestant  Europe  and  of 
Roman  Catholicism. 

Christianity  entered  upon  a  chapter  in  its  life's  history  which 
is  not  yet  fully  written.  This  chapter  is  dominated  by  Protes- 
tantism, more  especially  upon  its  ethical  side,  and  although  we 
shall  have  to  trace  ethical  development  in  Jesuitism  and  the 
Jansenist  movement,  the  Roman  church  has  more  and  more 
identified  herself  with  the  scholasticism  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
the  ethical  development  in  her  thought  has  been  rather  uncon- 
scious than  systematic. 

It  only  remains  to  say  a  word  about  the  morality  of  the  world's 
life  before  the  Reformation.  Were  men  and  women  better  or 
worse  than  in  preceding  centuries?  The  question  cannot  be 
categorically  answered.  The  outward  morality  of  the  days 
before  the  Reformation  can  be  painted  in  very  dark  colors. 
There  is  no  question  about  the  existence  of  a  shocking  amount 
of  violence  and  vice.  But  we  have  no  statistics,  and  even  if 
we  had  there  is  no  more  difficult  and  dangerous  task  than  the 
ethical  interpretation  of  statistics.  Increased  notice  of  crime 
may  mean  increased  sensitiveness  to  it  and  not  increase  of  the 
crime  itself.  Some  things  are  unquestionably  true.  Life  was 
cheap.  The  roads  were  insecure.  Private  warfare  was  com- 
mon and  frightfully  cruel  and  demoralizing.  Duelling  was  uni- 
versal in  the  better  class,  fighting  and  brawling  in  both  better 
and  lower  classes.  Monks,  friars,  and  priests  were  suspected  of 
the  lowest  passions:  and  many  were  the  tragic  histories  wept 
over  in  cloistered  cell  and  monastery  prison. 

The  mere  story  of  Abelard's  life  shows  how  darkly  the  picture 
may  be  drawn.  Capital  punishment,  inquiry  by  torture,  brutal 
injustice,  and  mad  revenge  all  reflect  themselves  in  the  pages  of 
story,  poem,  and  history.  However,  these  things  stirred  men  then 
as  they  do  now,  and  must  have  been  in  great  measure,  then  as  now, 
exceptional  as  compared  to  the  great  mass  of  human  life.  There 
were,  no  doubt,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  happy,  peaceful, 
prosaic  lives  with  unquestionably  great  limitations;  yet  limita- 
tions are  relative  and  the  consciousness  of  them  very  unequal. 


372  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

There  are  some  things  that  mark  themselves  powerfully  in  the 
ethics  and  the  religion  of  the  days  just  before  the  Reformation. 
Death  was  markedly  premature.  Life  was  burdened  by  the 
dread  of  pest,  war,  and  sudden  death  through  the  uncontrolled 
forces  of  nature.  Probably  in  a  well-ordered  community  where 
nine  out  of  ten  of  the  adults  lived  out  life  to  its  full  present  limit, 
the  fear  of  death  would  give  way  to  a  distinct  sense  of  its  welcome 
release  from  weakness  and  dependence.  What  weighs  on  adult 
minds  is  only  the  fear  of  premature  death,  with  the  result  of 
dependent  women  and  children,  unfinished  work,  and  capacities 
for  usefulness  and  enjoyment  undeveloped  and  untried. 

Heaven,  hell,  and  purgatory  played  a  far  greater  part  in  the 
Middle  Ages  than  they  do  now.  They  were  needed  to  complete 
in  fantasy  the  unfinished  lives  that  were  all  too  common.  The 
question,  however,  is  an  interesting  one,  whether  they  played 
any  really  serious  part  in  the  encouragement  of  virtue  or  the 
restraint  of  vice.  So  far  at  least  as  one  can  observe,  their 
practical  disappearance  as  ethical  motives  from  the  lives  of 
educated  men  and  women  to-day  has  not  changed  the  ethical 
character  of  the  daily  life  of  such. 

To  this  dread  of  premature  death  and  judgment  may  be  due 
the  sombre  character  of  so  much  of  the  church  literature  and 
even  of  the  people's  poetry.  The  northern  sagas  are  full  of 
longing  after  a  fuller  and  freer  life.  In  this  respect  both  Protes- 
tantism and  Catholicism,  after  the  Reformation  had  drunk  of  the 
spirit  of  the  newly  awakened  humanity,  show  a  marked  improve- 
ment. There  is  a  note  of  joy  and  elation  in  Chaucer,  Spencer, 
and  Shakespeare,  as  in  Boccaccio  and  Valla,  which  belongs  to 
the  newly  found  faith  in  humanity  and  its  future.  This  note  is 
found,  indeed,  in  almost  every  religious  awakening.  Paul  cries 
out,  "  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always,  again  I  say  rejoice,"  and 
Francis  of  Assisi  calls  upon  the  little  brother  birds  to  help  him 
express  his  joy.  In  Tauler,  in  Erasmus,  and  in  Luther  the  note 
is  not  lacking.  The  great  forward  movement  of  the  race  began, 
indeed,  with  the  low,  soft  note  of  the  nightingale,  but  the  lark's 
triumphant  outburst  marks  the  new  day  spring  from  on  high. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  373 

The  disappearance,  practically,  of  chattel  slavery,  an  economic 
advance  with  which  Christianity  had  little  or  nothing  to  do,  and 
its  merging  into  serfdom  and  then  free  labor,  must  have  greatly 
affected  the  moral  standards  and  the  objective  morality  of  the 
day.  But  we  are  not  in  possession  of  the  facts.  The  outward 
face  of  the  matter  was  at  first  gravely  discouraging.  Peasant 
revolts,  dreadful  suffering,  the  breaking  of  old  ties  between 
masters  and  servants,  hate  instead  of  trust,  treachery  for  loyalty, 
discontent  and  suspicion,  misery  and  helplessness  mark  the 
transition  period. 

It  is  at  least  doubtful  whether  on  the  Continent  or  in  England 
the  immediate  effect  of  the  Reformation  was  not  seemingly 
ethically  disastrous.  The  reaction  from  liberty  to  law  which 
marks  Calvinism  and  the  Jesuit  counter-reformation  had  the 
roots  of  its  power  in  men's  fears  before  the  immediate  results  of 
the  demand  for  ethical  autonomy  and  the  breaking  loose  from 
old  bonds.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  most  fearful  and  dramatic 
scourge  of  sexual  sin  made  its  appearance  and  spread  misery 
and  suffering  all  over  Europe.^  If,  as  now  maintained,  it  came 
back  with  Columbus  on  his  first  return  from  the  West  Indies, 
Europe  paid  a  bitter  price  for  the  discovery;  for  bad  as  this 
awful  scourge  is  even  now,  it  is  mild  compared  to  the  disease  on 
its  first  appearance.^  The  sexual  excesses  of  the  days  immedi- 
ately following  the  Reformation  may  not  have  been  worse  than 
just  before,  but  undoubtedly  sexual  standards  were  changed, 
and  that  there  was  temporary  confusion  and  uncertainty  Protes- 
tantism can  well  afford  to  admit.  In  fact  it  would  have  been 
strange  if  this  were  not  the  case. 

In  a  view  of  the  world  where  the  married  state  is  regarded 
as  inherently  inferior,  standards  of  sexual  morality  are  formed 
which  give  way  at  once  when  that  view  is  rejected.  It  takes 
time  to  form  ethical  norms,  and  that  a  generation  found  itself 

'  Cf.  Professor  Ed.  Lesser  (Berlin),  "Neue  Forschungen  iiber  eine  alte  Krank- 
heit,"  in  "Internationale  Wochenschrift  fiir  Wissenschaft,  Kunst  und  Technik," 
I  Year;   No.  lo,  June  8,  Munich,  1907,  p.  317. 

^  C/.  Ulrich  von  Hutten's  description  and  the  literature  cited  in  Professor 
Lesser's  paper. 


374  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

singularly  without  guidance  is  evidenced,  as  we  shall  see,  in 
Luther's  own  discussion  of  the  matter.  At  the  same  time  the 
rapid  spread  of  the  sexual  scourge  we  have  noticed  shows  how 
loose  was  the  morality  of  Europe  long  before  the  Reformation 
or  even  the  demoralization  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

It  was  upon  this  world  that  saw  gun-powder  enter  the  actual 
field  of  war,  that  learned  of  a  new  continent  beyond  the  seas, 
that  found  new  freedom  in  the  printing-press  and  new  fields 
for  the  individual  in  the  self-government  of  the  Free  City  that 
the  Reformation  broke.  Its  beginnings  lie  far  back.  Wyclif's 
preachers  were  suggested,  in  part  at  least,  by  the  early  Francis- 
can friars,  and  as  England  had  longest  maintained  the  forms  of 
the  early  Bishop's  church,  so  it  was  chronologically  first  in 
England  that  the  elements  of  the  Reformation  are  apparent. 

THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

Introductory  Note 

One  of  the  great  forces  at  work  in  the  transformation  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  rise  of  the  national  feeling. 
As  early  as  the  ninth  century  the  division  between  the  language 
of  cultivation  (Romance)  and  the  vulgar  (Deutsch)  speech  had 
begun  to  be  on  national  rather  than  class  lines.  In  England  the 
nation  rose  out  of  a  mingling  of  many  peoples,  and  the  island 
character  of  the  country  contributed  to  the  rapid  blending  of 
varied  elements.  At  the  same  time  the  amalgamation  has  never 
been  complete,*  although  the  elements  making  for  unity  have 
been  on  the  whole  greater  than  those  telling  for  division.  Eng- 
land has  developed  along  lines  strongly  individual  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  hand  has  conserved  many  useful  primitive 
virtues  and  opinions.  That  this  relative  isolation  involved  loss 
as  well  as  gain  need  hardly  be  disputed. 

One  of  the  marked  influences  of  this  separation  from  conti- 
nental interests  was  a  strong  feeling  of  nationality,  particularly 

'  For  amusing  evidence  of  England's  conciousness  of  being  a  mixed  race,  see 
De  Foe's  "True-bom  Englishman,  a  Satire"  (eighteenth  century),  London, 
1 701,  and  other  editions. 


THE   ENGLISH   REFORMATION  375 

among  the  plainer  people.  The  aristocratic  Norman  element 
still  thought  of  itself  as  linked  with  Europe,  and  England's 
possessions  in  France  made  her  aristocracy  cosmopolitan,  im- 
perial, and  Roman  Catholic.  For  the  common  man,  however* 
the  French  wars  were  often  an  insufferable  burden,  and  though 
profoundly  Catholic  in  his  faith  he  felt  that  there  was  a  British 
church  and  an  independent  tradition. 

When,  then,  an  English  ethics  begins  to  emerge  as  a  separate 
line  of  thought  from  mediaeval  scholasticism,  the  dominant  note 
is  political  and  the  leading  inquiry  is  as  to  the  foundation  of 
authority  and  the  origin  of  dominion.  Practical  religious  and 
political  wants  mark  the  progress  of  England's  ethical  develop- 
ment from  Wyclif  to  Wesley.  This  immediate  practical  aim 
as  over  against  the  theoretical  and  scholastic  temper  may  be 
a  result  of  the  national  character,  though  this  the  writer  doubts, 
but  certainly  it  is  bound  up  with  immediate  pressing  questions 
which  sought  insistently  for  an  answer. 

The  ethics  of  English  Protestantism  has  nevertheless  its  roots 
deep  in  scholasticism.  The  influence  of  mediaeval  culture  has 
nowhere  left  more  permanent  memorials  than  in  the  centres  of 
English  intellectual  life,  London,  Oxford,  and  Cambridge.  More- 
over, Scottish  Protestantism,  in  spite  of  its  intense  reaction  along 
some  lines  against  mediaeval  scholasticism,  has  through  the  in- 
fluence of  Calvin  remained  bound  hand  and  foot  at  important 
periods  of  her  development  to  a  scholastic,  authoritative,  and 
aristocratic  view  of  life. 

Here  again  some  would  maintain  that  the  Celtic  blood  had 
something  akin  to  Roman  Catholicism,  but  the  political  and 
economic  factors  seem  the  more  influential  ones.  The  habit 
of  practical  compromise  has  been  painfully  and  bloodily  forced 
home  upon  the  English  mind.  Freedom  of  opinion  has  been 
bought  with  a  bitter  price,  and  thus  it  happens  that  in  her  ethics 
England  exhibits,  on  the  one  hand  a  remarkable  independence, 
and  on  the  other  a  curious  refusal  to  press  home  the  accepted 
axioms  as  a  French  thinker  would  be  likely  to  do. 

Then  again  English  thought  has  had  such  direct  and  imme- 


376  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

diate  relation  to  political  action  that  a  certain  conservatism  was 
bred  of  the  responsibility  this  involves.  Up  to  Fichte,  the 
German  intellectual  life  was  almost  entirely  apart  from  political 
activity.  It  had  its  own  rules  and  canons,  and  often  seems 
to  have  purchased  freedom  in  the  things  of  the  spirit  by  sur- 
render of  the  more  material  liberties.  It  is  almost  with  im- 
patience that  the  English  mind  views  the  elaborate  speculative 
systems  that  France  and  Germany  have  given  to  the  world. 
Intellectual  empiricism  has  been  the  legitimate  offspring  of 
England's  system  of  political  compromises,  by  which  alone  the 
heterogeneous  elements  which  constitute  her  life  have  been  held 
together  for  national  purpose. 

The  ethics  of  English  Protestantism  cannot  be  sharply  sepa- 
rated into  those  of  organized  Christianity  and  purely  philosophi- 
cal systems.  We  must  deal  with  men  like  Hobbes  and  Hume, 
although  to  characterize  their  morality  as  Christian  is  to  ex- 
tremely strain  this  long-suffering  predicate.  Happily  the  systems 
of  many  of  the  more  distinctly  philosophical  writers,  like  those 
of  Hume,  Adam  Smith,  James  Mill,  etc.,  are  so  well  expounded 
in  other  pages,  and  so  familiar  in  English  literary  history,  that 
we  can  afford  to  deal  with  them  only  as  they  affect  our  more 
immediate  interest,  namely,  the  history  of  ethics  within  organized 
Christianity. 

In  point  of  fact,  systems  of  ethics  within  the  church  and 
professedly  built  upon  the  teachings  of  Jesus  are  often  further 
away  from  his  ideals  than  noble  systems,  like  that  of  John 
Stuart  Mill,  for  example,  which  are  drawn  up  in  conscious 
antagonism  to  all  revealed  religion  as  that  term  was  generally 
understood  among  Englishmen.  The  philosophical  utilitarian- 
ism of  Mill  really  comes  much  nearer  to  the  Gospel  ideal  than 
the  coarse  eudaemonistic  appeals  that  have  so  often  marred  even 
high  types  of  Christian  thought. 

The  character  of  the  national  church  has  also  been  forced 
upon  it  by  political  exigency.  The  existence  of  non-conformity 
has  comijclled  the  established  church  on  the  one  hand  to  empha- 
size her  exclusive  claim  to  be  "the"  church,  and  on  the  other 


THE   ENGLISH   REFORMATION  377 

to  make  membership  within  it  as  easy  as  possible.  We  cannot 
therefore,  set  aside  systems  of  ethical  thought  within  this  all-em- 
bracing Protestantism  simply  because  they  do  not  carry  an 
ecclesiastical  stamp,  nor  can  we  make  the  description  ''Chris- 
tian" depend  upon  the  attitude  assumed  to  some  purely  theo- 
logical formula. 

The  main  lines  in  the  history  of  our  subject  are  fairly  well 
marked.    We  shall  deal  first  with  the  early  reformers  within  the 
church,  although  their  followers  were  often  driven  out,  and  we 
have  happily  in  the  writings  of  Wyclif,  Tyndale,  and  Hooper 
typical  examples  of  the  thinking  along  these  early  lines.    After 
the  political  reformation  by  Henry  VIII,  which  had  been  only 
made  possible  by  Wyclif  and  Lollardism,^  three  great  separate 
movements   appear   in   English  ethical  thinking.     Puritanism 
arose  with  its  peculiar  and  perhaps  unfortunate  reflection  of 
Geneva  and  political  Calvinism.     On  the  other  hand  Anglo- 
Catholicism  rises  to  the  defence  of  many  things  Puritanism 
spurned.     With  a  separate  history,   and   often  with   another 
economic    background,    separatism    or    Independency    begins 
slowly  to  come  to  self-consciousness.     It  will  be  only  possible 
to  take  leading  and  characteristic  examples  along  these  three 
lines,  and  we  may  do  this  the  more  cheerfully  because  the  ethics 
were  so  often  and  so  unfortunately  swamped  in  theological, 
ecclesiastical,    and    political    disputations.    And    lastly    there 
sprang  up  in  ethics  the  great  school  of  English  rationalism, 
which  may  be  subdivided  into  those  consciously  indifferent  or 
hostile  to  the  forms  of  organized  Christianity  and  those  who 
professed  either  to  defend  or  to  reinterpret  Christianity.    Here 
the  lines  of  demarcation  are  difficult,  and  there  are  some  whose 
attitude  leaves  us  seriously  in  doubt  as  to  where  they  may  be 
classed.     On  the  other  hand  there  are  not  wanting  brilliant 
formulators  of  distinct  types  of  ethics  that  may  claim  the  name 
English,   and   which   possess   a   peculiar   practical   character, 
although  the  representatives  are  found  both  within  and  without 
organized  Christianity. 

'  Contra  Gairdner. 


378  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

I.      THE    ETHICS    OF    THE    FORERUNNERS   OF    THE  REFORMATION 
— WYCLIF,    THE  LOLLARDS,   TYNDALE,   HOOPER 

The  ethics  of  Wyclij  *  are  in  some  respects  even  more  distinctly 
social  and  political  than  those  of  Luther.  Just  indignation  at 
the  way  in  which  the  Romish  Curia  was  exploiting  the  national 
church  aroused  Wyclif  as  it  did  the  later  German  reformer. 
Neither  leader  ever  lost  wholly  the  scholastic  turn  of  mind 
natural  to  all  highly  trained  intellects  in  those  days.  But 
Wyclif  had  the  advantage  of  coming  out  of  a  more  critical  and 
sceptical  type  of  scholasticism  (Duns  Scotus.  Ockham)  than 
that  of  Luther's  order.  Hence  his  ethics  are  more  homogeneous 
and  more  critical  than  those  of  Luther,  though  they  lack  on  the 
other  hand  the  warmth  and  religious  fire  of  the  great  German. 

Following  the  arguments  of  Archbishop  Richard  Fitz-Ralph 

'  Literature. — The  English  works  of  Wyclif  are  made  accessible  by  various 
editors:  Arnold,  Thomas:  "Select  English  Works  of  John  Wyclif,  Edited  from 
Original  MSS.";  Oxford,  1869-1871;  3  vols. — Matthew,  F.  D.:  "The  English 
Works  of  Wyclif,  Hitherto  Unprinted"  (Early  English  Text  Society);  London, 
1880. — Todd,  James  T.:  "Three  Treatises  by  John  Wyclif,  with  Notes  and  a 
Glossary";  Dublin,  1851. — The  Religious  Tract  Society:  "Writings  of  John 
Wyclif"  (Selections);  being  the  first  volume  of  their  Reformer  Series,  and  con- 
taining other  Lollard  writings;  London,  183 1;  first  American  reprint,  Phila- 
delphia, 1842. — Wyclif  Society  (Miss  Dorothy  G.  Matthew,  Hon.  Sec,  yoBelsize 
Park  Garden,  London,  N.  W.):  Latin  works  of  John  Wyclif,  edited  by  vari- 
ous scholars  and  published  by  the  society. — Lechler,  Gotthard:  "Joannis 
Wiclif  Trialogus  cum  supplemento  trialogi";  Oxford,  1869. — Buddensieg, 
Rudolf:  "Lateinische  Streitschriften";  Leipsic,  1883;  2  vols.;  English  edition 
under  the  title:  "John  Wiclif's  Polemical  Works  in  Latin";  London  (Wyclif 
Society);  2  vols.;  1883. — Shirley  (Walter  Waddington)  has  published  "A  Cata- 
logue of  the  Original  Works  of  John  Wyclif"  (Oxford,  1865)  that  has  super- 
seded that  of  Bale  and  others,  but  itself  must  be  corrected  from  the  more  recent 
research  of  Loserth,  Buddensieg,  Matthew,  and  others. — Lechler,  Gotthard 
Victor:  "Johann  von  Wiclif  und  die  Vorgeschichte  der  Reformation";  Leipsic, 
1873;  2  vols,  (translated  partly  in  "John  Wiclif  and  his  English  Precursors, 
Additional  Notes  by  Peter  Lorimer";  London,  1878;  2  vols.)  is  still  most  valu- 
able.— Buddensieg,  Rudolf:  "John  Wiclif,  Patriot  and  Reformer,  Life  and 
Writings";  London,  1884. — Buddensieg,  Rudolf:  "Johann  Wiclif  und  seine 
Zcit,  zum  500  jahrigen  Jubilaum";  Halle,  1885;  ("Vcrein  fiir  Reformations- 
gcschichte,  Schriften"). — V'aughan,  Robert:  "John  de  WyclifTe,  D.D.,  a  Mono- 
graph"; London,  1853. — Trcvelyan,  George  Macaulay:   "England  in  the  Age 


FORERUNNERS   OF  THE   REFORMATION     379 

(Armagh)  in  his  tract  "  De  pauperie  Salvatoris,"  *  on  to  their 
logical  conclusion  that  the  civil  government,  namely,  had  supreme 
control  under  God  of  all  the  temporal  possessions  of  the  church, 
Wyclif  even  more  thoroughly  than  Luther  in  his  letters  to  the 
Protestant  princes  makes  the  church  dependent  upon  the  civil 
power. 

The  church  should,  according  to  Wyclif,  have  no  temporal 
possessions  of  her  own  at  all.^  She  should  be  poor  and  live  on 
the  free-will  offerings  of  each  parish.  These  free-will  offerings 
or  tithes  could  then  be  withheld  by  official  action  of  the  parish 
from  a  bad  priest.^  Then  following  up  the  suggestions  of 
Marsiglio  of  Padua,^  Wyclif  defended  the  essentially  divine 
character  of  the  State  and  the  social  order.  He  took  seriously 
the  doctrine  of  the  two  swords,  but  the  State  was  not  to  yield 
the  sword  up  to  the  church,  rather  was  the  church  to  submit 
herself  loyally  even  to  bad  princes.  For  though  only  a  righteous 
man  can  lawfully  hold  possession  of  anything,  yet  God  does 

of  Wycliffe";  3d  ed.;  London  and  New  York,  Longmans,  1900. — See  also  the 
article:  "Wiclif  und  der  Wiclifismus,"  by  G.  Loserth,  in  Herzog-Hauck's 
"Realencyklopadie";  vol.  XXI  (1908),  pp.  225-244,  which  is  the  latest  and 
most  critical  review  of  Wyclif 's  life.  There  is  a  very  large  literature  dealing  with 
Wyclif's  work  and  life,  but  it  is  generally  uncritical,  and  often  without  proper 
access  to  his  writings.  The  chronology  of  Wyclif's  tracts  and  sermons  is  still 
much  unsettled,  and  even  the  separation  by  critical  process  of  the  genuine  from 
the  later  writings  attributed  to  him  leaves  much  to  be  desired.  The  dependence 
of  Huss  upon  Wyclif  is  now  firmly  established  by  the  researches  of  Loserth, 
Dziewicki,  and  others.  The  date  of  Wyclif's  birth  and  the  exact  place  he  was 
born  are  alike  unknown.  He  was  born  in  Yorkshire  and  died  in  1384.  He 
himself  escaped  a  martyr's  death,  though  his  bones  were  dug  up,  burnt,  and  cast 
into  the  water  forty  years  after  his  death. 

»  Published  in  part  in  the  series  of  Wyclif's  Latin  works  (1890),  by  the  Wyclif 
Society,  in  the  volume  containing  "De  Dominio  Divino,"  edited  by  R.  L. 
Poole,  pp.  257-476,  with  a  useful  analysis  in  the  Index,  pp.  xxxiv-xlvii. 

*  In  many  passages  of  his  sermons;  see,  for  instance.  Sermon  LXXX,  vol.  I, 
p.  268  (Arnold's  "Select  English  Works"),  "And  goods  put  in  priest's  possession 
is  root  of  all  his  sin,"  etc. 

'Arnold's  edition  "Select  English  Works,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  176. 

^Marsilius  de  Padua  "Defensor  Pacis  seu  dictiones  vel  libri  tres  adversus 
usurpatam  Romani  pontificis  jurisdictionem"  (1324  to  1326,  about).  Many 
editions.  An  old  English  translation  by  Wyllyam  Marshall,  1553,  London  (not 
seen). 


38o  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

permit  unrighteousness  to  have  possessions  ^  and  passive  suf- 
ferance or  resistance  are  all  the  weapons  a  really  Christian  man 
may  use.^ 

At  first  this  attitude  left  Wyclif  still  loyal  to  the  Pope  and 
"the  holy  mother  church,"  but  he  could  not  long  maintain  this 
position,  and  vi'hen  the  Pope  condemned  his  teachings,  like 
Luther  after  him,  he  appealed  from  Pope  and  council  and  tradi- 
tion to  his  sole  authority,  the  "Word  of  God  in  the  Bible."  ' 

Up  to  a  certain  point  that  "reverence  for  the  keys,"  which 
kept  Dante  from  speaking  his  whole  mind  to  Pope  Nicholas  III, 
concerning  that  Pope's  avarice  and  the  unfortunate  so-called 
"gift  of  Constantine "  ^  kept  Wyclif  also  from  fully  expressing 
himself.  But  this  attitude  of  reserve  gave  way  steadily  under 
the  attacks  made  upon  him  after  his  outspoken  opposition  to 
Roman  supremacy  from  the  time  of  the  so-called  "good  parlia- 
ment" (1376-77)  and  the  attempted  trial  for  heresy.  This 
period  seems  to  mark  an  era  in  Wyclif 's  thinking,  and  he  steadily 
becomes  more  radical  and  more  vigorously  Protestant. 

As  in  Luther,  so  in  Wyclif  there  is  a  growing  freedom  from 
scholasticism  as  the  mother  tongue  takes  the  place  of  Latin. 
The  Latin  sermons,  and  even  the  Latin  controversial  tracts,  are 
not  only  more  elaborate,  as  befitting  a  more  learned  circle  of 
readers,  but  they  are  in  thought  and  method  much  more  bound 
in  the  older  modes  of  thought  and  feeling.  They  lack  the  free- 
dom of  the  English  sermons.  They  reveal  an  interest  in  ques- 
tions never  raised  in  the  English  works.  Did  all  the  Trinity 
come  to  the  world,  for  instance;  or  whether  it  was  necessary  to 
have  angels  to  keep  the  world  moving.*    So  also  the  ethics  of 

'  "De  Civili  Dominio,"  London,  Wyclif  Society,  1885-1904,  liber  I,  cap.  6, 
pp.  42-44.     (R.  L.  Poole,  editor,  vol.  I.) 

'  For  an  extreme  statement  of  this  position,  among  many,  see  Sermon  CXLVI, 
Arnold's  edition  of  "English  Works,"  vol.  II,  pp.  40-44. 

'  Cf.  "De  veritate  sacrae  scriptur.x,"  edited  by  Rudolf  Buddcnsicg,  in  3  vols., 
Lcipsic,  1904,  with  much  valuable  material  by  the  editor. 

*Cj.  "Inferno,"  canto  XIX,  lines  loo-iio. 

'"Nontamcn  video  quod  oportet  angclos  movcrc  orbes  celestes  (ut  fingunt 
philosophi),  etc.,  etc.     "Latin  Sermons,"  Loscrth's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  14. 


FORERUNNERS  OF  THE  REFORMATION    381 

the  Latin  sermons  ^  are  still  much  under  the  influence  of  scholas- 
ticism, although  breaking  away  from  the  authority  of  the 
church. 

As  with  Duns  Scotus,  so  with  Wyclif,  God  is  supreme  will. 
He  is  over-lord  by  creation.^  But  we  share  his  being  as  the  gift 
of  his  grace,  and  sin  is  a  negation  for  which  God  is  not  responsi- 
ble. He  willed  not  the  sin,  but  only  the  punishment  of  it.^ 
Man  is  free  to  sin,  and  has  free-will,  and  God  permits  sin  because 
of  the  ultimate  good  to  mankind.^ 

All  power  and  lordship  comes  from  God  and  is  conditioned 
upon  our  right  use  of  it.  The  prince  forfeits  his  throne  and 
the  priest  his  power  of  the  keys  of  righteousness  by  lacking  it.^ 

We  look  then  to  a  threefold  "law"  as  the  expression  of  the 
terms  upon  which  we  hold  any  authority.  Wyclif  constantly 
refers  to  "natural  law,"  "the  law  of  Scripture,"  and  "the  law 
of  conscience,"  ^  and  thus  begins  the  inevitable  break  with  all 
external  authority  as  final  and  absolute  for  the  thinking  man. 

The  authority  of  the  Pope  had  already  been  challenged  by 
Ockham  in  his  dispute  with  John  XXII,^  and  he  had  written  a 
small  compendium  of  the  errors  of  that  Pope.  In  fact  he  denied 
the  need  of  a  pontifex  summus  for  the  church.^  Wyclif  went  on 
further  to  call  popes  and  cardinals  and  associated  friars  "Anti- 
christ" and  "tares  among  the  wheat."'    He  strikes  at  indul- 

'  C}.  the  exposition  of  the  commandments  in  the  nine  sermons,  XIII  to  XXII, 
vol.  I,  "Latin  Sermons,"  Loserth's  edition,  pp.  86-154. 

'".  .  .  sed  eo  ipso  quod  creatur,  Deus  habet  de  ipso  dominium,"  in  "De 
Dominio  Divino,"  liber  I,  cap.  Ill,  p.  16  (Poole's  edition,  1890),  and  many  later 
passages. 

'"De  Dominio  Divino,"  liber  I,  cap.  14,  pp.  116-121;  c/.  Poole's  edition, 
1890. 

*  "De  Dominio  Divino,"  liber  I,  cap.  14,  pp.  1 21-125,  Poole's  edition,  1890. 

*  "De  Civili  Dominio,"  liber  I,  cap.  i,  p.  6,  Poole's  edition,  vol.  I,  1884,  and 
many  passages. 

*  C}.  Lechler:  "  Johann  von  Wiclif,'  vol.  I,  pp.  377-380,  an  exceedingly  just 
estimate  at  this  point. 

^  C/.  his  "Dialogus,"  Lyons,  1494. 

*  "Dialogus,"  pars  III,  cap.  25. 

*  Sermon  XXXVI,  vol.  I,  p.  97,  Arnold's  edition  of  "English  Works";  cj. 
Sermon  XLVIII,  vol.  I,  p.  138,  and  many  other  places. 


382  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

gences,  auricular  confession,  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  the 
worship  of  images,  the  magic  of  the  mass,  and  the  power  of 
Rome  to  absolve  from  sin  and  vows.  The  claim  of  Rome  to 
over-lordship  is  heresy,*  and  indeed  Rome  by  setting  up  this 
claim  shows  she  is  Antichrist,  and  these  are  the  last  days.^ 
Wyclif  shared  a  popular  view  that  Satan  had  been  bound  a 
thousand  years,  but  now  was  loosened  and  allowed  to  prey 
upon  the  church,  but  that  his  doom  was  fixed  and  would  shortly 
take  place.^ 

Wyclif  follows  Thomas  Aquinas  in  denying  the  material 
transmission  of  sin  through  the  physical  seed/  It  is  an  attitude 
of  man's  will,  a  negation  of  the  good.  All  sin  may  become 
mortal;  there  is  no  inherent  distinction  between  venial  and 
mortal  sins,^  and  in  the  same  sermon  in  which  he  brings  that  out 
he  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  flesh  is  not  sin,  but  only  the 
occasion  of  sinning,  and  claims  that  that  is  the  teaching  of  Paul. 
Sin  is  yielding  to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  as  over  against  higher 
claims.  All  that  God  made  is  good,  but  by  choosing  the  lower 
rather  than  the  higher  man  sins. 

In  the  Latin  sermons  the  Judgment  Day  plays  a  very  impor- 
tant and  solemn  role,*  and  more  than  once  Wyclif  emphasizes 
the  fact  that  we  can  never  be  sure  of  salvation  in  this  life  because 
we  may  not  persevere.''  Indeed  there  is  painfully  lacking  in 
Wyclif's  message  the  joyful  evangelical  note  which  rings  out  so 
often  in  Luther.  On  the  principle  of  justification  by  grace  and 
faith,  however,  Wyclif  had  just  as  clear  a  hold  as  any  of  the  later 
reformers,*  but  at  this  point  orthodox  scholastic  Catholicism 
need  have  had  no  quarrel  with  the  Reformation. 

'  Sermon  LXIV,  vol.  I,  p.  199,  Arnold's  edition. 

°  Sermon  LXVI,  vol.  I,  p.  206,  Arnold's  edition  "English  Works." 

'  Sermon  XL,  vol.  I,  p.  112,  Arnold's  edition. 

*  Cj.  "Trialogus,"  III,  26,  pp.  218-222,  Lcchler's  edition,  O.xford,  1869,  with 
*'  Summa  Secunda:,"  I,  Qu.  83,  Art.  i. 

*  Sermon  XXIV,  vol.  I,  p.  61,  Arnold's  edition  "English  Works." 

•  Cj.,  for  example,  Sermon  II,  vol.  I,  p.  11,  of  Loserth's  edition. 
^  Sermon  XII,  vol.  I,  p.  85,  I.oserth's  edition. 

•  C}.  "  Of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,"  p.  347,  of  Matthew's  edition  of  "  English 
Works." 


FORERUNNERS   OF  THE   REFORMATION     383 

In  the  third  book  of  the  Triolog  *  there  is  a  little  compact 
ethical  treatise,  but  it  is  in  dialogue  form,  and  reflects  more  of 
the  scholastic  method  than  when  Wyclif  in  his  English  tracts 
deals  trenchantly  with  the  seven  deadly  sins,^  and  takes  strong 
ground,  for  instance,  against  all  encouragement  of  war  by  the 
Church  as  inherently  sinful.  The  crusades  of  the  Pope  were 
wicked  per  se.  War  in  anger  is  sinful.  All  violence  even  by 
the  State  must  be  in  love  and  righteousness.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  important  ethical  distinctions  in  Reformation  literature. 
There  are  also,  according  to  Wyclif,  seven  works  of  mercy  of 
a  spiritual  (ghosdy)  type  and  seven  of  a  bodily  mercy.  Of 
these  the  spiritual  take  the  pre-eminence.  They  are  teaching, 
counselling,  reproving,  comforting,  forgiving,  suffering,  and 
prayer,  as  over  against  the  "bodily"  works  of  mercy,  feeding  the 
hungry,  giving  of  drink,  hospitality,  clothing  the  naked,  visiting 
the  prisoners,  the  sick,  and  burying  the  dead.^  This  last  being 
on  the  authority  of  the  Book  of  Tobit. 

This  is  the  new  "law  of  love"  in  Christ  Jesus,  which  demands 
new  rites  and  ceremonies  as  Paul  shows  in  Galatians.^  Wyclif 
does  not  deny  that  the  life  of  Christian  contemplation  is  the 
highest.  But,  he  argues,  the  life  of  contemplation  does  not  ex- 
clude the  active  life  (vita  activa).  His  definition  of  the  con- 
templative life  is  therefore  essentially  non-ascetic.^  Jesus  chose 
according  to  the  same  teaching  the  life  of  poverty  not  because  of 
gaining  merit,  but  because  it  is  intrinsically  the  best  and  happiest. 

So  also  true  fasting  is  abstaining  from  vice,*  and  actual  fasting 
must  never  incapacitate  the  body  for  Christian  service,  which  is 
the  main  thing. 

Wyclif  assumes  that  it  was  John  the  Evangelist  who  was 

*  Pp.  128-238  of  Lechler's  edition. 

*  Arnold's  "Select  English  Works,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  119. 

»  Cf.  Arnold's  "Select  English  Works,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  168-182. 

*  Sermon  VIII,  vol.  I,  p.  57,  "Latin  Sermons." 

*  Sermon  VII,  vol.  I,  p.  49,  of  Loserth's  edition  of  "Latin  Sermons,"  and  many 
passages. 

*".  .  .  Ad  jejunium  spirituale  quod  est  abstinencia  a  viciis,"  "Latin 
Sermons,"  VIII,  vol.  I,  p.  56,  of  Loserth's  edition. 


384  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

married  at  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  glories  in  this  as  a  rebuke  to 
those  who  deprecate  marriage  in  itself.'  He  refuses  to  accept  the 
allegorical  explanations  of  texts  showing  marriage  to  be  a  duty. 
Indeed,  although  Wyclif  maintains  in  theory  the  old  scholastic 
"four  senses"  of  Scripture,^  yet  in  reality  he  is  a  great  lit- 
eralist. 

He  saw  the  sexual  dangers  in  celibacy  and  the  temptations  of 
the  frequent  pilgrimages,  and  condemns  them.^  Such  pilgrim- 
ages and  the  indulgences  granted  for  them  only  deceive  men,  for 
the  Pope  is  blasphemous  when  he  grants  pardons  for  sin  in 
God's  name.*  In  fact  the  priest  cannot  forgive  sin,  he  only 
declares  God's  forgiveness  in  cases  of  true  repentance.^ 

Wyclif's  position  with  regard  to  the  relation  of  the  State  to 
the  Church  is  a  weakness  in  his  ethical  thinking.  The  State 
has  not  only  a  right  but  a  duty  to  root  out  heresy,'  at  the  same 
time  must  keep  within  God's  law.  Which,  however,  assumes 
that  the  State  knows  what  is  God's  law,  a  knowledge  Wyclif 
has  just  before  generally  denied  to  all  prelates,  who  can  no  more 
distinguish  between  "catholic"  and  ''heretical"  than  they  can 
between  mortal  and  venial  sins.'  Wyclif  thought  that  laymen 
were  better  than  ecclesiastics,*  at  the  same  time  at  this  point 
Wyclif  had  no  more  thought  this  matter  through  to  a  logical 
Protestant  toleration  than  did  Luther  or  Calvin  later  on.     Per- 

'  "Latin  Sermons,"  S.  XI,  vol.  I,  p.  73,  Loserth's  edition. 

'  "The  plain  or  literal,  the  allegorical  which  looks  to  the  future,  the  tropolog- 
ical  (ethical),  teaching  how  men  should  live  here  in  virtue,  and  the  anagogic, 
telling  about  the  future."  C}.  Sermon  XII,  Arnold's  "English  Works,"  vol.  I, 
p.  30. 

'  Sermon  XXXII,  vol.  I,  p.  83,  Arnold's  edition  "  English  Works." 

*  Sermon  LXI,  vol.  I,  p.  189,  Arnold's  edition  of  "English  Works." 

*  Sermon  XIV,  vol.  I,  p.  35.  Cj.  also  XIX,  vol.  I,  p.  47,  Arnold's  edition 
"English  Works." 

*  C/.  "Latin  Sermons,"  XIV,  vol.  I,  pp.  96-97,  Loserth's  edition,  for  full 
statement. 

^  "Et  isto  porismatc  diaboli  stabilito  ad  tantum  cccavit  animas  prclatorum, 
quod  nesciunt  distinguere  inter  catholicum  atque  hcrcticum,  sicut  nesciunt 
distingucrc  inter  peccatum  venialc  hominis  ct  mortale,"  etc.,  etc..  Sermon  XIV, 
p.  96,  Loserth's  edition  of  "Latin  Works." 

'  Sermon  CXL,  vol.  II,  p.  28,  Arnold's  edition  "English  Works." 


FORERUNNERS   OF   THE   REFORMATION    385 

haps  the  need  for  a  unified  life  seemed  then  more  insistent  than 
it  does  to  us. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Wyclif  pleads  for  a  German- 
Anglican  alliance  against  the  extortions  of  the  church,*  For 
Wyclif  was  sure  that  if  the  church  was  poor  and  not  blinded 
by  selfish  interests  reason  and  faith  would  have  no  conflict.^ 

Of  course  the  temper  of  the  time  was  hard.  Wyclif  is  far 
from  loving  in  his  fierce  and  often  indiscriminate  attacks  upon 
all  "cardinals,  priests,  and  other  children  of  the  devil."  He 
felt  that  the  joys  of  the  redeemed  would  be  heightened  by 
seeing  the  pains  of  the  damned,  which  comports  but  poorly  with 
his  doctrine  of  the  immorality  of  all  unloving  violence.  Indeed 
his  ethics  often  sinks  back  to  the  level  of  a  stern  legalism;  and 
God  is  in  many  places,  especially  in  the  Latin  works,  portrayed 
in  terms  of  the  familiar  feudal  over-lordship  of  the  Anselmic 
theology.  Yet  in  spite  of  all  this,  the  more  Wyclif  is  made  ac- 
cessible to  us  in  the  printed  page  the  more  will  he  be  duly 
recognized  as  one  of  England's  greatest  Protestants.  Nor 
has  English  theology  fairly  realized  what  a  mighty  ethical  leader 
she  possessed  in  the  simple  yet  profound  priest  of  Lutterworth. 

As  Canon  Shirley  (Walter  W.)  says,^  "If  Wyclif  had  died  before 
his  denial  of  transubstantiation  ...  his  name  might  have 
come  down  to  us  in  another  form  and  miracles  might  have  been 
wrought  at  the  touch  of  their  founder  by  the  brother  preachers 
of  St.  John  Wyclif."  But  as  a  fact  the  Lollard  " poor  preachers" 
are  the  apostolic  predecessors  of  Wesley's  circuit  preachers  and 
the  Salvation  Army's  lay  workers.  And  they  were  Wyclif's 
direct  creation  in  exactly  the  spirit  of  John  Wesley  and  General 
Booth. 

'  "  Et  quam  graciosa  foret  anglicorum  et  almanorum  confederacio  per  quam 
restitueretur  in  ecclesia  Christi  ordinacio,"  Sermon  XIX,  vol.  I,  p.  144. 

^  "Sed  Veritas  est  quod  lumen  naturale  ordinatum  a  Deo  ut  inducat  in  fidem 
non  est  contrarium  lumini  fidei,  sed  in  fidem  catholicum  inductivum,"  Sermon 
XXV,  vol.  I,  p.  170,  "Latin  Sermons." 

*  Introduction  to  his  admirable  "Fasciculi  Zizaniorum  magistri,"  p.  xli, 
London,  i8t;8. 


386  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


II.   THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  LOLLARDS 

It  is  not  the  place  here  to  speculate  upon  the  reasons  for  the 
relative  failure  of  Lollardism^  in  England.  The  causes  lay 
largely  in  the  economic  and  political  conditions.  Nor  does  the 
movement  show  any  ethical  advance  over  the  conclusions  of 
Wyclif.  The  writer  has  failed  to  discover  in  the  literature 
accessible  to  him  any  single  ethical  conclusion  not  already  in 
Wyclif.  Seldom  does  a  movement  seem  so  completely  ex- 
pressed by  its  founder  as  Lollardism  was  by  Wyclif.  The  move- 
ment grew  bitter  under  persecution,  but  even  this  is  altogether 
natural,  and  when  one  reads  the  fierce  attacks  of  Wyclif  upon  the 
friars  one  sees  the  inspiration  to  the  stern  denunciations,  often 
no  doubt  partial  and  indiscriminate,  which  Peacock  ^  so  strongly 
condemns.  Men  like  Hereford,  John  Ashton,  John  Parker,  and 
less-balanced  minds  like  Swynderley,  Crampe,  and  William 
Smith,  simply  followed  in  the  wake  of  their  great  master. 

The  movement  was  a  protest  against  the  cosmopolitan  im- 
perialism of  Rome.  Had  Francis  of  Assisi  been  possessed  of 
Wyclif's  learning,  and  set  himself  as  Wyclif  did  to  making 
translations  of  the  Bible  into  colloquial  Italian,  Italian  supremacy 
in  the  continental  church  might  have  been  effectively  challenged 
long  before  Luther. 

The  ethics  of  the  Lollard  movement  were  centred  about 
Wyclif's  interpretation  of  the  New  Testament.     For  the  Lollards 

*  LiTERATtniE. — Besides  the  works  of  Lechler  and  Walter  W.  Shirley  already 
mentioned  (p.  378):  Peacock,  Reginald:  "The  Repressor  of  Over  Much 
Blaming  of  the  Clergy,"  edited  by  C.  Babington,  in  the  "Master  of  the  Rolls" 
series,  2  vols.,  1858,  etc. — Wright,  Thomas:  "Political  Poems  and  Songs  Re- 
lating to  English  History,  Composed  During  the  Period  from  the  Accession  of 
Edward  III  to  that  of  Richard  III,"  2  vols.,  1859. — Foxe,  John:  "Book  of 
Martyrs"  (many  editions). — Gairdncr,  James:  "Lollardy  and  the  Reformation 
in  England,  an  Historical  Survey,"  2  vols.,  London,  Macmillan,  1908. — See  also 
the  excellent  article,  "Lollarden,"  by  Professor  Rudolf  Buddensicg,  in  Herzog- 
Hauck's  "  Realencyklopadie,"  vol.  XI,  1902,  pp.  615-626,  where  fullest  literature 
is  given. 

'  Sec  Peacock's  "The  Repressor  of  Over  Much  Blaming  of  the  Clergy,"  "The 
Rolls"  series,  edited  by  Babington,  in  two  vols.,  1858,  etc. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  THE  LOLLARDS  387 

Christianity  was  a  fierce  protest  against  rich  institutional  religios- 
ity. And  without  question  that  is  a  very  distinct  note  of  the 
early  Gospel.  In  LoUardism  Christianity  once  more  allied  itself 
with  the  cause  of  the  proletariat,  but  the  day  of  the  proletariat 
was  not  economically  or  politically  fully  come.  LoUardism  was 
put  down  in  England  by  the  same  forces  that  suppressed  the 
Anabaptists  and  revolting  peasants  in  Germany,  and  for  the 
same  reason. 

Several  historians  have  wondered  that  the  final  overthrow  of 
such  Lollard  leaders  as  Oldcastle  did  not  excite  more  indignation. 
But  they  forget  that  the  indignation  of  the  disinherited  does  not 
get  into  history.^  The  members  of  the  possessing  class  who 
played  with  LoUardism  or  seriously  joined  themselves  to  it  were 
like  the  small  aristocracy  of  Germany  who  in  like  manner  for  a 
little  led  the  revolting  peasants.  But  in  the  end  the  Reformation 
was  to  be  carried  forward  by  the  class  and  the  interests  repre- 
sented by  the  Free  City,  and  not  by  the  unorganized  and  rela- 
tively helpless  proletariat.  Even  the  Lollard  poems  of  Piers 
Ploughman  and  the  fierce  invectives  of  the  Oxford  leaders 
failed  to  stir  the  great  middle  class,  into  whose  hands  history 
was  slowly  but  surely  passing. 

Hence  for  the  historian  of  the  ethics  of  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion the  Lollard  movement  is  summed  up  in  Wyclif,  and  we 
pass  to  the  new  movement  as  it  became  personified  in  one  pro- 
foundly influenced  by  both  humanism  and  Luther. 

^  Cf.  the  curious  Latin  poem  published  in  the  "Roll"  series  by  Thomas 
Wright,  "  Political  Poems  and  Songs,"  1859,  for  a  hostile  estimate  of  the  Lollards. 
A  single  verse  gives  an  idea  of  the  poem: 

"Lollardi    sunt    zizania, 
Spinae,   vepres  ac   lollia, 
Quae  vastant  horum  vinae; 
Nam  pejor  pestilentia 
Non  fuit  in  ecclesia, 
Incedens  tam  erronea. 
Quorum  linguae  viperae 
Et  denies  sunt  ut  frames^ 
Omni  pleni  fallacia. 
Hi  telae  sunt  aranea, 
Parvis  et  magnis  foveae, 
Cuntis  occultant  retia." 


388  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


WILLIAM  TYNDALE 

Nowhere  do  we  find  a  better  expression  of  the  ethics  of  the 
early  EngHsh  Reformation  party  than  in  William  Tyndale}  He 
shared  the  conception  of  all  historical  Protestantism  that  in  the 
Bible  an  absolute  rule  of  faith  and  practice  was  contained, 
while  at  the  same  time  making  the  uncritical  subjective  personal 
interpretation  of  those  Scriptures  the  real  norm.  Tyndale  more 
than  any  of  the  other  early  reformers,  save  some  of  the  Ana- 
baptist leaders  (through  ignorance  of  scholasticism),  divorced 

Literature. — "The  Works  of  the  English  Reformers,"  Tyndale  and  Frith, 
edited  by  Thomas  Russell,  in  3  vols.,  London,  1831.  (Part  of  a  series  entitled 
"The  Works  of  the  English  and  Scottish  Reformers,"  of  which  no  more  than 
these  were  ever  published.  It  had  also  been  the  publishers'  intention  to  prefix 
the  series  with  a  preliminary  volume  containing  Tyndale's  New  Testament; 
this  also  never  appeared;  see  Preface.). — "Doctrinal  Treatises,  and  Introduc- 
tions to  Different  Portions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,"  by  William  Tyndale  (Parker 
Society),  edited  by  H.  Walter,  Cambridge,  1848. — "An  Answer  to  Sir  Thomas 
More's  Dialogue,  The  Supper  of  the  Lord  After  the  True  Meaning  of  John  vi 
and  I  Cor.  xi,  and  Wm.  Tracy's  Testament  Expounded  by  William  Tyndale  and 
Edited  for  the  Parker  Society  by  H.  Walter,"  Cambridge,  1850. — The  Folio 
Edition  (Black  letter),  "The  Whole  workes  of  Wm.  Tyndall,  John  Frith,  and 
Doct.  Barnes,  three  worthy  Martyrs,  and  principall  teachers  of  this  Churche  of 
England,  collected  .  .  .  [with  a  commendatory  preface]  by  John  Fox,"  1572, 
1573,  2  vols. — "Writings  of  Tindal,  Frith,  and  Barnes."  Selections  from  their 
works;  with  biographical  notices  of  each;  2  parts,  London,  Religious  Tract 
Society,  1830. 

The  student  of  ethics  will  find  his  material  chiefly  in  "The  Wicked  Mammon," 
"The  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,"  and  the  Prologs  to  his  New  Testament 
and  Pentateuch.  A  life  is  published  by  R.  Demaus  ("William  Tyndale,  a 
Biography,  a  Contribution  to  the  Early  History  of  the  English  Bible,"  London, 
187 1 ;  new  edition,  London,  1886),  in  which  Foxe's  notice  is  critically  reviewed. 
See  also  the  valuable  Prolegomena  in  J.  R.  Mombert's  "William  Tyndale's 
Five  Books  of  Moses,  Called  the  Pentateuch,  Being  a  Verbatim  Reprint  of  the 
Edition  of  1530  .  .  .  ,"  New  York,  1884. 

'  William  Tyndale,  born  about  1484,  and  who  died  a  martyr's  death  near 
Brussels  in  1536,  translated  the  Bible  into  English  and  published  the  first 
printed  New  Testament  and  Pentateuch  in  English  and  with  collaboration  the 
whole  Bible.  His  life  was  spent  mainly  on  the  Continent,  where  he  sought 
refuge.  For  full  bibliography,  see  the  introduction  to  Mombert's  "Critical 
Reprint  of  the  Pentateuch,"  New  York,  1884;  critical  abstract  of  his  life  in 
Demaus's  "William  Tyndale,"  London,  187 1. 


f>^ 


THE   ETHICS   OF  TYNDALE  389 

the  reform  from  metaphysics,  and  gave  it  a  distinctly  political 
and  ethical  character. 

How  much  Tyndale  knew  of  scholasticism  does  not  clearly 
appear  in  his  works.  But  he  disavows  Aristode  in  words  that 
sound  like  Luther,^  and  in  a  clever  paragraph  dismisses  the 
whole  scholastic  training.^  His  theology  is  simple,  uncritical, 
and  formed  on  lines  akin  to  Luther's  middle  period. 

It  is  his  ethics  that  reveal  him  at  his  best.  And  not  even  in 
Luther  does  the  ethics  of  the  Reformation  rise  higher  than  in  '^^  J*/ 
Tyndale.  Faith  and  good  works  are  not  separate,  but  are 
organically  connected.  In  a  wonderfully  beautiful  little  prologue 
to  "The  Wicked  Mammon"  he  condenses  his  whole  teaching 
of  the  character  of  faith.^  Faith  is  the  acceptance  of  God's  love 
in  all  conditions  and  an  attitude  of  trustful  dependence  in  all 
circumstances.*  Good  works  are  the  natural  fruit  of  the  loving 
life,^  and  must  be  done  without  any  ulterior  purpose,  or  any 
vain-glory.  "  I  think  not  myself  better  for  my  working,  nor  seek 
heaven,  nor  any  higher  place  in  heaven,  because  of  it."  ®  Our 
working  love  carries  with  it  its  own  reward.  God  is  the  life  and 
beauty  of  all  good  deeds,  and  where  good  deeds  are  there  is 
God.'  Hence  the  New  Testament  was  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world,*  for  God  is  the  source  of  all  right-doing  everywhere, 
and  Aristotle's  doctrine  of  free-will  is  false.^    The  whole  interest 

'  "The  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,"  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.191.  See 
his  list  of  scholastics. 

2  "The  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,"  vol.  I,  p.  194. 

*  "That  faith,  the  mother  of  all  good  works,  justifieth  us,  before  we  can  bring 
forth  any  good  works:  as  the  husband  marrieth  his  wife  before  he  can  have  any 
lawful  children  by  her.  Furthermore,  as  the  husband  marrieth  not  his  wife  that 
she  should  continue  unfruitful  as  before  .  .  .,  but  contrariwise  to  make  her 
fruitful;  even  so  faith  justifieth  us  not,  that  is  to  say,  marrieth  us  to  God,  that 
we  should  continue  unfruitful  as  before  .  .  .  but  to  make  us  fruitful. "—"Works," 
Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  76. 

*  "Prolog  to  Exodus,"  vol.  I,  p.  16,  Russell's  edition. 

*  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  23. 
'  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  24;  cf.  also  p.  43,  and  many  passages,  as  vol.  I, 

pp.  99-100.  ''  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  35. 

'  "Prolog  to  Exodus,"  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  24. 

*  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  38. 


39©  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

that  Tyndale  has  in  " free-will"  is  ethical  and  not  metaphysical. 
He  wishes  to  clear  faith  and  right  living  from  every  taint  of 
"work  righteousness"  and  coarse  hedonism. 

The  "rewards"  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament  are  not  the 
ends  toward  which  we  move,  but  simply  the  inevitable  accom- 
paniments of  the  good  life.  "Now,  then,  as  after  evil  living 
followeth  his  reward  unsought  for,  even  so  after  good  living 
foUoweth  his  reward  naturally  unsought  for,  or  unthought 
upon.* 

This  love  has  no  limits.  "I  am  bound  to  love  the  Turk  with 
all  my  might  and  power;  yea  and  above  my  power  .  .  .  neither 
to  spare  goods,  nor  body,  nor  life  to  win  him  to  Christ."  ^ 

As  with  Luther,  so  with  Tyndale,  the  common  task  is  holy. 
"  A  kitchen  page"  is  equally  doing  God's  service  as  a  "  preaching 
apostle," '  which  passage  suggests  Tyndale's  dependence  upon 
Luther,  although  with  great  freedom.^  Chastity  is  of  thought 
and  there  is  hardly  any  saner  treatment  of  the  topic  than  by 
Tyndale.^  Asceticism  has  no  place  in  his  ethics  at  all.  Even 
more  thoroughly  than  Luther  has  Tyndale  stripped  his  ethics 
of  the  sombre  dualism  of  Augustine.®  The  subjection  of  the 
body  is  only  for  the  sake  of  rendering  more  complete  and  accept- 
able service  to  God.  Beautifully  in  passage  after  passage  of 
"The  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man"  does  Tyndale  bring  out 
the  nature  of  the  Christian  life  as  service.  All  things  are  for 
man's  sake,  and  all  life  is  giving.  Law  must  be  kept,  but  there 
are  three  tempers,  fear,  hope  of  reward,  and  for  love's  sake. 
Only  the  last  is  Christian,  and  this  love  is  service  unto  death.' 

*  "The  Wicked  Mammon,"  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  102. 

*  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  132;  cj.  p.  134  and  vol.  II,  p.  7,  in  answer  to  Sir 
T.  More. 

*  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  pp.  136-137. 

*  Tyndale  spent  some  time  with  Luther  at  Wittenberg  between,May,  1524,  and 
April,  1525;  cj.  Demaus's  "Life,"  p.  93,  and  pp.  98-101,  edition  of  1886,  and 
"Prologomena  to  the  Reprint  of  the  Pentateuch,"  p.  xxvii,  New  York,  1884. 
He  may  also  have  lived  for  some  time  there  in  secret. 

*  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  47. 

*  Cj.  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  pp.  112  and  1 27. 

^  Many  passages;   see  especially  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  216. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  TYNDALE  391 

In  this  service  there  is  a  democracy  of  believers  in  Christ,  where 
neither  equality  nor  inequality  comes  into  view  ^  as  in  holy 
wedlock. 

What  is  common  to  Tyndale  and  the  whole  reforming  English 
group  is,  however,  the  mechanical  attitude  toward  the  Scriptures. 
Never  does  Tyndale  rise  to  the  height  of  faith  that  gives  Luther 
at  times  a  certainty  greater  than  Scripture,  and  a  norm  (the 
mind  of  Christ)  by  which  any  word  of  Scripture  is  to  be  tried. 
Hence  the  ethics,  not  so  much  in  Tyndale  as  in  the  later  men, 
becomes  legal  and  mechanical. 

But  a  still  greater  weakness  is  shared  fully  by  Tyndale.  The 
authority  of  the  Church  and  State  are  misapprehended.  Tyndale 
preached  that  the  king  was  answerable  only  to  God.^  In  Eng- 
land men's  interest  in  this  position  was  to  set  up  king  against 
pope,  as  Wyclif  had  also  done  and  to  show  that  the  Pope's 
interference  in  temporal  matters  was  usurpation.^  True  there 
were,  and  always  had  been,  evil  rulers,  but  they  are  sent  of 
God,  as  signs  of  God's  wrath,^  and  must  be  left  to  God  for  pun- 
ishment. 

This  non-resistance  doctrine  arose  not  only  from  literal  inter- 
pretation of  Romans  xiii,  but  also  from  the  confusion  in  men's 
minds  about  the  postulates  "all  government  is  divine,"  and 
"  therefore  any  particular  government  is  the  final  divine  form." 
It  took  years  of  sad  and  bloody  experience  for  the  reformers  to 
reach  even  a  working  theory  of  the  relation  of  Church  to  State; 
and  the  direct  cause  of  much  Protestant  weakness  and  confusion 
must  still  be  sought  at  this  point. 

This  weakness  in  the  ethics  of  Tyndale  is  joined  with  a  kindred 
misapprehension  as  to  the  function  of  law.    The  false  antithesis 

*  "The  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,"  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  290. 

*  "If  the  king  sin  he  must  be  reserved  to  the  judgment,  wrath,  and  vengeance 
of  God  .  .  .  hereby  seest  thou  that  the  king  is  in  this  world  without  law,  and 
may  at  his  lust  do  right  or  wrong,  and  shall  give  account,  but  to  God  only." 
Even  a  heathen  prince,  according  to  Tyndale,  must  not  be  resisted.  "  Obedience 
of  a  Christian  Man,"  vol.  I,  p.  212,  Russell's  edition. 

»  "Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,"  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  220. 

*  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  229. 


392  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

between  law  and  grace,  based  upon  Paul's  teaching,  separates 
the  Old  Testament  from  the  New,  and  yet  leaves  law  in  force. 
While  Tyndale  had  rightly  apprehended  the  Christian  man's 
attitude  toward  law,  he  does  not  find  place  for  the  historical 
unfolding  of  our  ethical  experience  as  to  what  is  the  good. 
Nor  was  it  possible,  probably,  at  that  time,  for  any  man  to 
separate  himself  sufficiently  from  an  absolute  view  of  life  to 
realize  the  relative  character  of  all  ethical  standards. 

The  Reformation  ethics  were  deeply  political.  The  caustic 
and  not  impartial  survey  of  history  given  by  Tyndale  in  his 
"The  Practice  of  Prelates"  must  have  been  tremendously 
influential  in  the  later  stages  of  the  English  Reformation.  In 
this  treatise  Tyndale  disavows  and  denounces  the  proletariat 
revolt  as  strongly  almost  as  Luther,*  at  the  same  time  traces  the 
social  revolt  to  bad  princes  and  prelates.  Princes  and  prelates 
should  only  rule  in  a  kingdom  of  service.^  To  them  is,  however, 
committed  the  sword,  and  although  the  church  has  the  right  to 
use  only  spiritual  weapons,  such  as  exclusion  from  communion 
and  fellowship  with  the  saints,  Tyndale  evidently  regards,  as 
Wyclif  also  did,  princes  as  the  rightful  guardians  of  the  faith. 
The  character  of  this  assumption  is  not  plain  to  thousands  of 
Protestants  yet.^  Kings  should,  of  course,  assert  righteousness 
and  rule  according  to  Scripture,  but  if  they  do  not  there  is  no 
appeal  save  to  God. 

Tyndale's  denial  of  sacramental  magic,  of  work-righteousness 
and  papal  usurpation  could  not  be  more  complete  than  it  is. 
He  is  often  stern,  but  seldom  so  violent  as  Luther  or  Wyclif. 
The  Pope  is  Antichrist,  and  the  whole  Roman  communion  is 
gone  astray  and  is  no  church  of  God.  Sometimes  Tyndale  is 
witty:  "They  pray  in  Latin,  they  christen  in  Latin,  they  bless 
in  Latin,  they  give  absolution  in  Latin,  only  curse  they  in  the 
English  tongue."  *    The  language  of  Tyndale  is  refined  and 

*  "The  Practice  of  Prelates,"  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  389. 

*  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  396. 

*  See  discussion  by  Tyndale,  Russell's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  399. 

*  Vol.  I,  p.  305,  Russell's  edition. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  TYNDALE  393 

gentle,  and  his  great  learning  shines  in  his  translation.  With 
him  the  ethics  of  the  English  Reformation  made,  indeed,  a 
good  beginning. 

Tyndale  lived  most  of  his  troubled,  stormy  life  away  from 
England.  Perhaps  because  of  this  the  careful  reader  notices 
in  him  a  singular  indifference  to  the  details  of  ecclesiasticism  in 
England.  The  interests  in  his  ethics  are,  indeed,  political  but 
not  mainly  churchly. 

For  this  interest  one  must  turn  to  the  writings  of  another  group 
of  men  who  felt  themselves  directly  responsible  for  the  English 
church,  and  whose  ecclesiastical  interest  affects  not  only  their 
theology,  with  which  we  are  not  concerned,  but  also  their  ethical 
point  of  view. 

For  the  purposes  of  our  examination  the  works  of  Bishop 
Hooper  ^  sound  distinctly  this  note  and  practically  express 
accurately  the  attitude  of  Cranmer,  Ridley,  and  Latimer,  and 
the  great  mass  of  churchly  reformers.^ 

These  men  were  churchmen,  to  whom  ethics  therefore  had 
practically  a  twofold  basis,  for  although  the  church  was  bound 
to  the  Scripture,  the  traditional  interpretations  of  the  (true) 

*  John  Hooper  (Hoper  or  Houper)  was  born  in  Somersetshire.  The  exact  date 
is  unknown.  He  studied  at  Oxford  (Merton  College,  according  to  Foxe),  and 
entered  the  Cistercian  monastery  at  Gloucester.  On  the  dissolution  of  the  monas- 
teries he  joined  BuUinger  at  Ziirich,  whose  writings,  together  with  those  of 
Zwingli,  had  deeply  affected  him.  Upon  the  establishment  of  the  Reformation  in 
England  he  returned  to  be  Bishop  of  Worcester,  to  which  afterward  Gloucester 
was  added.  During  the  persecutions  of  Queen  Mary  he  suffered  martyrdom, 
1555,  by  burning  at  the  stake. 

His  works  are  collected  and  edited  by  the  Parker  Society  in  two  volumes,  the 
"Early"  and  the  "Later  Writings,"  1843-1852.  The  Religious  Tract  Society 
has  also  published  "Selections"  in  their  vol.  V.  The  best  sketch  of  his  life  is 
attached  to  the  second  volume  of  his  works  by  the  Parker  Society.  A  list  of 
Bishop  Hooper's  writings  is  given  in  Tanner's  "Bibliotheca  Britannica-Hiber- 
nica." 

The  writings  that  have  most  interest  for  the  ethical  student  are :  "  The  Declara- 
tion of  Christ  and  His  Office";  his  "Declaration  of  the  Ten  Holy  Commandments 
of  Almighty  God,"  both  in  first  volume  of  the  "Collected  Writings,"  and  "Brief 
and  Clear  Confession  of  the  Christian  Faith,"  in  the  second  volume. 

^  The  works  of  these  early  reformers  are  made  accessible  in  the  publications  of 
the  Parker  Society,  and  selections  are  published  by  the  British  Tract  Society. 


394  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

church  were  authoritative.  The  marks  of  the  true  church  are 
"the  pure  preaching  of  the  Gospel  and  the  right  use  of  the 
sacraments,"  ^  and  in  her  spiritual  life,  though  subject  to  the 
State,  she  is  to  be  independent  of  it.^  The  very  letter  of  Script- 
ure is  to  control,  and  yet  the  rejection  of  the  whole  ritual  law 
and  the  subjective  and  arbitrary  interpretation  of  even  the  Ten 
Commandments  goes  without  protest. 

Over  Hooper  more  than  Tyndale  fall  the  shadows  of  scholastic 
dualism.  Man's  total  depravity,  as  taught  by  Bullinger  and 
Bucer  in  its  extremest  form,  appears  in  Hooper.  We  are  "the 
enemy  of  God,  the  image  of  the  devil,  the  library  of  lies,  the 
friend  of  the  devil,  right  heir  of  eternal  death,  and  the  child  of 
damnation,  murderers  by  means  of  sin,  not  only  of  ourselves,  but 
also  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  never  sinned."  ^ 

This  low  estimate  of  humanity  reacts  upon  the  doctrine  of  the 
church.  For  although  the  "true"  church  cannot  err,  man's 
depravity  is  such  that  any  church  may  err  ^  and  become  a 
bloody  tyranny.  This  faith  in  an  inerrant  transcendental  church 
might  be  harmless,  but  no  distinction  is  in  point  of  fact  made 
between  the  empiric  and  the  transcendental  church,  and  the 
identification  of  an  existing  empiric  church  with  the  "true" 
church  leads  Hooper  and  the  ecclesiastical  group  far  astray. 

This,  in  fact,  leads  their  ethics  back  to  a  legal  and  outward  in- 
terpretation of  Scripture,  and  gave  rise  to  all  manner  of  disputes.' 

The  church  in  her  bishops,  with  the  sacraments  and  the 
Scripture,  become  the  real  measure  of  conduct.  The  king, 
although  he  is  not  to  be  resisted,  if  he  disobeys  the  church  is  yet 
to  be  set  right  by  the  church.  "As  to  touching  the  superior 
powers  of  the  earth,  it  is  not  unknown  unto  all  them  that  hath 
readen  and  marked  the  Scripture  that  it  appertaineth  nothing 

»  "Christ  and  His  Office,"  vol.  1,  Parker  Society,  p.  8i. 
'  For  a  typical  instance  of  confused  thinking  at  this  point,  see  "Christ  and  His 
Office,"  chaps.  lo  and  ii,  vol.  I,  pp.  73-87. 

'  "Christ  and  His  Office,"  chap.  12,  vol.  I,  p.  87. 

*  "Christ  and  His  Office,"  chap.  3,  vol.  I,  p.  23. 

*  Bishop  Hooper  himself  refused  consecration  in  certain  vestments  he  declared 
unscriptural. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  HOOPER  395 

unto  their  office  to  make  any  law  to  govern  the  conscience  of 
their  subjects  in  religion."  ^  Yet  this  expression  of  the  spiritual 
character  of  Christ's  kingdom  is  never  really  carried  through. 
Christ  is  head  of  the  church,  but  the  king  is  head  of  the  State, 
and  the  church  gives  laws  to  the  king  and  so  to  the  State.  This 
leads  Hooper  and  others  into  endless  ethical  confusion. 

There  is  also  in  Hooper,  in  striking  contrast  to  Tyndale,  a  pre- 
dominantly aristocratic  tone.  The  Reformation  was  already  in 
the  hands  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes.  Even  in  Tyndale 
we  may  see  society  constantly  thought  of  as  made  up  perma- 
nently of  "estates  of  men"  in  substantial  dependence  one  upon 
another.  The  husband  is  as  God  to  the  wife,  the  master  as  God 
to  the  servant,  and  the  parent  as  God  to  the  child.^  In  spite  of 
this,  however,  Tyndale's  ethics  are  profoundly  individualistic 
and  democratic.  But  Hooper  and  the  churchly  group  still 
think  of  society  as  made  up  of  dependent  castes,  with  prescribed 
duties  and  rights  in  a  fixed  and  somewhat  rigid  social  order. 
The  church  is  still  a  hierarchy,  only  the  relation  of  the  State 
to  the  hierarchy  is  left  somewhat  undefined.  Hooper  appeals  to 
Parliament  to  adjust  all  religious  questions  on  the  basis  of  the 
"law  and  the  Gospels,"^  but  in  the  last  instance  the  "reformed" 
church  is  to  control  the  interpretation  of  the  "law  and  the 
Gospel." " 

The  Bible  was  to  be  put  into  English,  and  then  it  was  fondly 
hoped  that  all  would  agree  upon  what  it  taught.  Historic 
Protestantism  has,  of  course,  revealed  the  fact  that  in  essentials 
and  non-essentials  disagreements  among  honest  men  are  inevit- 
able, and  that  even  on  the  question  of  what  is  essential  and  what 

'  "A  Declaration  of  the  Ten  Commandments,"  vol.  I,  p.  280. 

'  Tyndale's  "Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,"  vol.  i,  Russell's  edition,  p.  172. 

*  "  Appelatio  ad  Parliamentum,"  "Satis  enim  est  christiano  homini  Christi  lex 
et  evangelium:  tyrannicum  autem  et  plane  satanicum  est  ad  illam  religionem 
christianum  hominem  compellere,  quam  lex  Christi  et  evangelium  penitus 
ignorant."  Cf.  the  whole  argument  that  the  Turks  have  their  Koran  and  the 
Jews  are  faithful  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  Roman  church  alone  is  afraid 
of  her  own  book.     "Later  Writings,"  Parker  Society  edition,  vol.  II,  p.  393. 

*  "Appellatio  ad  Parliamentum,"  vol.  II,  pp.  396-397. 


396  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

non-essential  personal  subjectivity  is  ever  in  control.  For  men 
like  Hooper,  Ridley,  and  Latimer,  however,  "the  Truth"  was 
so  evident,  and  the  pages  of  the  newly  opened  Scriptures  so 
simple,  that  only  dishonesty  of  purpose  kept  men  blind. 

Already  in  this  group  the  influence  of  political  Calvinism  can 
be  traced,  and  the  logical  outcome  of  reformed  theology  only 
awaited  a  thorough-going  advocacy.  It  was  within  the  estab- 
lished church  that  this  logic  produced  a  new  school  of  thinking 
to  which  the  name  Puritanism  was  given,  at  first  in  scorn,  but  like 
so  many  other  such  names,  it  became  at  last  an  accepted  term. 


III.     THE  ETHICS  OF  PURITANISM — THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT,  TRAVIS, 

JOHN   KNOX 

The  Puritan  movement  had  its  real  beginnings  in  the  some- 
what cramped  and  narrow  life  of  the  English  foreign  colony  in 
Frankfort-on-the-Main.  It  is  probably  impossible  for  us  at  this 
distance  of  time  to  realize  what  those  conditions  must  have  been. 
The  authorities  gave  the  exiles  a  warm  welcome.  But  the  letters 
and  documents  now  given  us  by  historians  abundantly  reveal  the 
hard  struggle  for  mere  daily  bread,  and  the  great  poverty  that 
constantly  oppressed  them.  It  is  under  such  circumstances 
that  the  smallest  differences  become  reasons  for  the  most  serious 
irritations. 

The  reaction  from  the  church  at  Rome  and  the  growing 
horror  of  idolatry  were,  moreover,  gready  strengthened  by  the 
influence  of  reformed  theologians  who  had  early  taken  stronger 
ground  along  these  lines  than  the  Lutherans. 

The  seeming  success  of  the  new  theocracy  established  at 
Geneva  by  Calvin,  and  the  really  wise  and  learned  counsels  of 
Calvin,  Bullinger,  and  Bucer,  made  a  deep  impression  on  the 
wandering  English  Protestants.  When,  therefore,  they  could 
return  under  Elizabeth's  reign,  they  came  back  with  a  distinct 
mark  upon  their  thinking  and  ideals. 

The  earliest  struggles  of  the  little  colony  over  vestments,  the 
use  of  a  ring  at  weddings,  the  sign  of  the  cross  at  a  baptism,  the 


THE  ETHICS  OF  PURITANISM  397 

right  position  of  the  communion  table,  all  mark  the  inevitable 
"levitical  stagnation"  due  to  a  re-establishment  of  priestly 
authority  under  another  name. 

The  age  was  not  one  of  easy  tolerance  of  divergence.  A  more 
tolerant  spirit  might  have  meant  at  that  day  in  England  only 
laxity  and  indifference.  Even  to-day  Bishop  Paget  seems  unable 
to  realize  the  need  of  great  variety  in  religious  expression,  and 
regards  the  confusions  then  common  in  ritual  as  "discreditable 
and  dangerous,"^  although  a  visit  to  the  services  of  the  Lon- 
don churches  within  the  English  establishment  would  probably 
reveal  to-day  a  divergence  of  custom  and  thought  even  greater 
than  that  mentioned  in  the  paper  cited  by  Strype.^ 

The  attempt  to  enforce  uniformity,  however,  raised  even 
more  serious  questions  than  those  that  had  divided  the  church 
at  Frankfort,  for  they  concerned  themselves  with  fundamental 
issues  in  regard  to  the  character  of  both  Church  and  State,  and 
of  the  legitimacy  of  the  orders  and  discipline  of  the  reformed 
establishment.  Out  of  these  questions  came  English  Puritan- 
ism.' Two  separate  interests  more  or  less  divide  Puritanism  in 
all  its  history.  On  the  one  hand  it  stood  for  "pure,"  i.e.,  Calvin- 
istic  doctrine,  and  on  the  other  for  a  simple  ritual  and  a  severe 
church  discipline.  Nor  did  these  two  interests  always  go  to- 
gether. At  the  same  time,  just  as  in  the  established  church  of 
England  to-day  ritualism  and  high-churchmanship  are  usually 
associated,  so  in  Puritanism  Calvinistic  doctrine  and  simple 
ritual  were  generally  allied. 

Nevertheless,  with  these  we  are  not  primarily  concerned. 

Underneath  the  life  of  all  Puritanism  lay  certain  assumptions 
and  a  distinct  conception  of  the  world  which  color  their  ethics 
and  mark  the  movement  as  a  whole.     We  must  begin  with  the 

*  Paget,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  in  his  "Introduction  to  the  Fifth  Book  of  Hooker's 
Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  chap.  II,  p.  25,  2d.  ed.,  1907. 

'^  "Life  of  Archbishop  Parker,"  book  II,  chap.  5. 

*  Neal  (Daniel),  in  his  preface  to  his  "History  of  the  Puritans,"  thus  defines 
a  Puritan:  "A  Puritan  therefore  was  a  man  of  severe  morals,  a  Calvinist  in 
doctrine,  and  a  non-conformist  to  the  ceremonies  and  discipline  of  the  church." 
New  edition,  London,  1837,  3  vols.,  vol.  I,  p.  v. 


398  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

real  English  formulator  of  Puritan  ideals  and  Puritan  life, 
Thomas  Cartwright.^ 

True  it  is  that  Cartwright  has  left  us  no  systematic  ethics. 
The  Puritan  movement  as  a  whole,  like  every  movement  under 
the  inspiration  of  reformed  theology,  is  singularly  barren  in 

*  Cartwright,  Thomas,  born  in  1535,  in  Hertfordshire.  Studied  in  Cambridge 
and  was  eminent  for  attainments  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  Driven  from 
his  professorship  by  Whitgift  for  his  attacks  upon  the  Anglican  church  as  organ- 
ized by  Elizabeth,  he  fled  to  Beza  in  Geneva,  whence  he  issued  his  famous 
"Second  Admonition  to  Parliament,"  in  which  English  Presbyterianism  is 
plainly  outlined.  He  returned  to  England,  but  only  again  to  flee,  and  became 
minister  to  the  little  English  church  in  Antwerp  and  Middelburg.  From  here  he 
wrote  his  "Replie"  to  Dr.  Whitgift's  "Second  Answer  Touching  the  Churche 
Discipline,"  1575.  Here  also  he  translated  Walter  Travers's  "  Ecclesiasticae 
Disciplinae  Explicatio,"  published  Rochelle,  1574,  under  the  title  "A  full  and 
plaine  declaration  of  ecclesiasticall  Discipline  owt  of  the  Word  off  God  .  .  . 
1574."  (Also  Geneva,  1580;  Cambridge,  1584  and  1617.)  He  returned  in 
1585  to  England,  and  although  arrested  and  imprisoned  for  six  months,  escaped 
by  the  protection  of  powerful  friends,  and  was  installed  in  charge  of  a  hospital 
in  Warwick.  He  continued  his  activity  for  a  Presbyterian  church  discipline, 
and  the  "Directory  of  Church  Government  anciently  contended  for,  and  as 
farre  as  the  Times  would  suffer,  practiced  by  the  first  Non-Conformists  in 
the  Dales  of  Queen  Elizabeth,"  found  in  his  room  after  his  death,  is  reflected 
in  the  Westminster  Statements.  A  reprint  of  this,  from  the  edition  of  1644, 
appeared  from  the  press  of  James  Nesbit  in  1872.  And  Bishop  (Francis) 
Paget  reprints  the  Latin  original  (in  the  British  Museum  and  Lambeth  Palace) 
as  appendix  HI  ("Disciplina  Ecclesiae  sacra")  to  his  "Introduction  to  the 
Fifth  Book  of  Hooker's  Polity"  (2d  ed.,  1907).  As  Cartwright  fought  the 
Episcopacy  on  the  one  hand,  so  on  the  other  he  was  beset  by  the  Brownists 
and  Independents,  to  whom  his  reply,  published  by  Browne,  is  temperate 
and  in  fine  spirit.  Arrested  once  more  and  tried  before  the  Star  Chamber, 
he  was  again  protected.  He  died  in  peace  at  Warwick,  December  27,  1603. 
In  Latin  there  are  extant  a  harmony  of  the  Gospels,  "Harmonia  Evangclica," 
Elzevir  Press,  Amsterdam,  1627  and  1647;  "Commentaria  practica  in  totam 
historiam  evangelicam,"  same  press,  1630,  in  three  volumes.  Several  lives  have 
been  published.  In  Cooper  (Charles  Henry)  and  Thompson's  "  Athena;  Canta- 
brigienses,"  vol.  II  (Cambridge,  1858),  is  a  short  sketch.  Hanbury  (Benjamin), 
in  his  edition  of  Hooker's  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  and  other  works  (London,  1830, 
3  vols.),  has  given  also  an  outline.  Brook  (Benjamin),  in  his  "Lives  of  the 
Puritans  from  the  Reformation  under  Queen  Elizabeth  to  .  .  .  1662"  (London, 
1813,  3  vols.),  is  uncritical.  Nor  can  Dexter's  (Henry  Martin)  sketch  in  his 
"Congregationalism  of  the  Last  Three  Hundred  Years"  (New  York,  1879), 
be  taken  as  a  wholly  just  estimate.  Sec  also  Dr.  Charles  A.  Briggs's  ".\mcrican 
Presbyterianism,  Its  Origin  and  Early  History"  (New  York^  1885),  pp.  26-86. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   PURITANISM  399 

systematic  ethical  discussion.  Nor  is  the  reason  far  to  seek. 
The  Old  and  New  Testaments  are  for  Cartwright  inspired 
codes  of  divine  law.  We  have  only  to  explicate  that  law,  and 
church  governments,  rituals,  conduct  in  private  and  in  public 
life  at  once  receive  normal  and  final  regulation.  Not  even  the 
apocryphal  writings  should  be  read,  because  only  the  canonical 
books  have  this  supreme  authority.*  The  church  has  been 
directly  established  by  God,  and  there  is  only  one  true  church, 
which  may  be  known  by  three  notes:  ''preaching  of  the  word 
purely,  maintaining  the  sacraments  sincerely,  and  ecclesiastical 
discipline  which  consisteth  in  admonition  and  correction  of  faults 
severely  (sic)."^  Hence  the  names  of  officers  not  warranted  by 
Scripture  were  unchristian.^  On  the  basis,  therefore,  of  Script- 
ure he  demanded  a  church  with  only  pastors,  doctors,  elders, 
and  deacons,  and  denied  that  the  office  of  bishop  in  the  Eng- 
lish church  was  Scriptural.  All  ministers  were  to  be  equal, 
and  each  chief  in  his  own  cure.  The  ministers  were  to  be 
chosen  by  the  people,  but  once  chosen  seem  to  have  ruled 
unchecked,  save  for  open  sin  or  heresy.*  The  church  is  a 
theocracy,  and  should  be  protected  by  the  State  as  well  as 
fstablished  and  endowed.  But  no  pope  in  Rome  could  be 
haughtier  or  more  exacting  in  his  demands  for  submission  by 
the  State  to  the  rule  and  dominion  of  the  church.  Just  as  in 
Geneva  the  old  Roman  theory  of  the  two  swords  made  the 
State  Calvin's  ready  tool  to  strike  down  Servetus,  so  Cartwright 
would  have  had  the  State  do  the  bidding  of  the  church,  and 
banish  by  fire  and  sword  all  idolatry,  heresy,  and  rebellion 
against  the  church. 

'  "In  rcformanda  ecclesia  necesse  est  omnia  ad  apostolicam  institutionem 
revocari,"  the  seventh  of  Cartwright's  "Propositions."  "Omnis  scriptura 
pari  dignitate  et  reverentia  est  habenda,  ut  ct  omnia  Dei  nomina,"  the  fourteenth 
"Proposition." 

» An  admonition  to  Parliament  (Field  and  Wilcock),  but  endorsed  by  Cart- 
wright. 

*  "  Archiepiscopi,  decani,  archidiaconi,"  etc.,  were  "officia  et  nomina  impieta- 
tis,"  Strype,  "Annals,"  vol.  I,  part  2,  p.  373. 

*C/.  Strype's  quotations,  "Annals,"  vol.  I,  part  2,  pp.  379-381,  and  the 
"Second  Admonition  to  the  Parliament." 


400  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

As  it  is  not  in  the  great  movement  to  reform  the  government  of 
the  church  and  its  discipline,  with  which  Cartwright  and  Travers 
are  so  nearly  concerned;  that  we  are  immediately  interested,  we 
turn  from  the  controversial  work  of  Cartwright  for  the  present 
and  try  to  get  his  point  of  view  from  his  great  work  upon  the 
Gospels.*  With  him  as  with  Calvin,  the  nobler,  sweeter,  and  more 
evangelical  aspects  of  his  thinking  appear  in  his  dealing  with  the 
Bible.  And  yet  at  the  very  outset  his  doctrine  of  total  depravity 
in  its  crudest  form,  and  man's  utter  inability,  make  ethical  system 
exceedingly  difficult.^  Faith  is  an  impartation  of  God,'  in  the 
secret  of  his  own  will,  and  this  faith,  though  but  as  a  grain  of 
mustard-seed,  works  salvation.  The  assurance  of  this  salvation 
can  only  be  found  in  obedience  to  law.  And  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
revealer  of  this  new  law.*  The  "damnable"  heresT  of  the  Pope 
is  to  make  salvation  depend  on  works,  which,  howeve.'",  give  only 
evidence  of  the  saving  faith.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  whole 
function  of  the  Old  Testament  is  misunderstood.  Thi"-  ritual 
law  has  passed  away,  it  is  true,  but  a  higher  and  in  some  refcT)ects 
a  more  exacting  law  has  its  taken  place.  At  this  point  Puritanism 
is  never  quite  self-consistent,  for  certain  ritual  laws — like  I'he 
Sabbath — are  carried  over  into  the  new  dispensation.  Tk  e 
ethics,  then,  of  the  new  life  is  obedience — by  God's  grace — to  a 
new  law  given  by  the  new  law-giver,  Jesus  Christ. 

And  all  the  Old  Testament  regulation  of  life  is  taken  over  into 
the  new  dispensation.  The  church  is  thus  made  a  new  theoc- 
racy which  it  is  the  business  of  the  State  to  protect,  establish,  and 
obey  in  all  spiritual  things.'  This  church  is  not  infallible,  but 
must  be  constantly  purged  and  cleansed  by  the  word  of  God. 
All  the  Old  Testament  regulations  against  heresy,  idolatry,  and 

'  "Harmonia  Evangelica,  Commentario,  Analytico,  Metaphrastico,  Practico, 
1647." 

'"Harm.  Evang.,"  p.  208.  Comment  on  Matt.  5  :  1-13  (Praxis).  C/.  pp. 
1136-1137. 

*  "Harm.  Evang.,"  p.  11 24,  and  many  passages. 

*  "Harm.  Evang.,"  216  6-219  ^^ 

*  For  the  high-church  conception  of  Cartwright,  see  his  "Historia  Christi  ex 
IV  Evangelistcs,"  liber  secundus,  pp.  302-305,  edition  1630. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  PURITANISM  401 

false  doctrine  are  taken  over  by  the  new  church,  so  that  the 
sword  of  the  State  is  to  be  at  the  bidding  of  the  theocracy.^ 
God  is  to  be  praised,  not  because  he  is  our  Father,  whom  to 
know  in  Christ  Jesus  is  to  love,  as  Tyndale  and  Luther  at  their 
best  taught,  but  because  he  has  saved  us  whom  he  has  in  the 
secret  councils  of  his  own  will  chosen  and  redeemed.^  Through- 
out, the  permanent  relationship  between  the  believer  and  God  is 
thought  of  in  terms  of  ruler  and  subject,  of  law  and  obedience  to 
law. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is,  however,  a  spiritual  and  unseen 
power  and  does  not  consist  in  earthly  glory ,^  but  is  a  twofold 
reign  manifesting  itself  on  the  one  hand  in  God's  creating,  pre- 
serving, and  sustaining  all  things,  and  on  the  other  in  the  elect 
called  to  life  eternal/  The  earthly  kingdom  is  in  strong  contrast 
with  this  latter  kingdom,^  which  may  even  exist  without  the 
pomp  and  outward  circumstance  of  the  civil  sword. 

From  such  premises  the  ethics  of  Puritanism  were  evolved, 
and  splendid  as  was  often  the  ethical  result  of  personal  struggle 
for  an  ideal,  the  total  effect  was  hard,  legal,  and  narrow. 

The  literal  interpretation  of  Scripture  in  that  uncritical  age 
gave  rise  to  a  thousand  differences,  and  as  all  were  laws  from 
the  mouth  of  God  nothing  could  be  of  little  importance.  Details 
of  rite  and  government  were  on  the  same  level  as  essential  justice 
and  divine  mercy.  The  intolerance  of  the  Puritan  was  a  direct 
heritage  from  Rome.  He  shared  with  Rome  the  false  concep- 
tion of  the  relation  between  Church  and  State,  and  simply  broke 
from  the  personal  rule  of  the  Pope,  to  hand  over  his  power  to  a 
practically  infallible  ordained  eldership  interpreting  the  final 
word  of  God  on  every  subject,  from  the  family's  sweetest  relation- 
ships to  the  borders  upon  men's  garments  and  the  velvet  upon 
their  caps. 

•  Cf.  Passages  quoted  from  his  debate  with  Whitgift  by  Bishop  Paget,  in  his 
"Introduction  to  the  Fifth  Book  of  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  pp.  30-31. 
The  13th  of  Deuteronomy  exercised  an  unfortunate  fascination  upon  the  priestly 
mind  of  these  centuries. 

2  "Harm.  Evang.,"  pp.  39-40.  '  "Harm.  Evang.,"  p.  690. 

*"Harm.  Evang.,"  p.  242.  »"Harm.  Evang.,"  p.  1034. 


402  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  ethics  are  not  only  autocratic,  but  also,  in  essence,  priestly 
and  aristocratic.  The  ideal  theocracy  is  a  constitutional 
monarchy  with  the  Bible  as  the  constitution  and  a  ministry  and 
eldership  to  rule.  Civil  liberty  and  freedom  of  conscience  have 
historically  gained  a  great  deal  from  Puritan  struggles  and 
Puritan  sufferings,  but  nothing  from  Puritan  theory.  And  of 
nothing  were  the  early  Puritans  more  afraid  than  any  identi- 
fication of  their  cause  with  democracy  and  individualism.' 

Had  they  gained  the  upper  hand  they  would  have  persecuted 
as  ruthlessly  and  relentlessly  and  as  self-consistently  as  Rome. 
This  lay  not  simply  in  the  spirit  of  the  times,  but  in  the  very 
heart  of  their  theory  of  theocracy.  Cartwright  thought  that  for 
the  civil  power  to  begin  death  penalties  with  the  second  table 
of  the  commandments  was  to  reverse  the  very  order  of  things. 

Naturally  the  question  rose  about  conformity  to  the  State 
established  church  with  its  unscriptural  bishops  and  its  unlawful 
rites.  Here  Browne  pressed  Cartwright  very  hard,  but  Cart- 
wright  felt  that  in  protesting  and  hoping  for  further  reformation 
the  individual  was  obeying  God  in  staying  within  the  established 
church.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  see  how  those  who  followed  the  Old 
Testament  rather  than  the  New  could  well  come  to  any  other 
conclusion.  Presbyterianism  has  always  stood  historically  for 
an  established  State  church.^  And  whether  in  the  New  World 
or  the  Old,  it  has  always  sought  alliance  with  the  State  after 
the  model  of  the  Jewish  theocracy. 

It  was  a  serious  embarrassment  to  Puritanism,  representing  as 
it  did  a  middle-class  movement,  when  men  identified  its  hostility 
to  rites  and  ceremonies  with  hostility  to  class  privilege,  and  we 
find  Cartwright  and  his  friends  seeking  most  earnestly  to  separate 
themselves   from  these   democratic   outbursts.'    The   mainte- 

'  Most  instructive  at  this  point  is  Cartwright's  controversy  with  Browne. 

'  Even  the  Scotch  Free  church  broke  from  the  establishment  from  no  sense 
that  the  theory  of  establishment  was  wrong,  but  because  of  what  they  regarded 
as  oppression  in  its  workings. 

*  "  Libels  at  this  time  were  publicly  scattered  in  the  schools,  viz.,  that  poor  men 
toil  and  travel,  but  the  prince  and  the  doctors  licked  up  all."  Strype,  vol.  I, 
part  3,  p.  374. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  PURITANISM  403 

nance  of  all  ecclesiastical  privilege  was  quite  as  dear  to  the  heart 
of  Puritanism  as  it  was  to  the  Anglo-Catholics.  At  the  same 
time  the  State  was  not  to  control  these  ecclesiastical  privileges. 
"Neither  let  the  magistrate  think  (although  in  respect  of  their 
civil  authority  the  church  be  subject  unto  them)  that  in  this 
behalf  they  are  to  be  exempted  from  this  precept  and  com- 
mandment of  the  aposde,  who  chargeth  every  one  to  be  subject 
to  those  who  in  the  Lord  are  set  over  them";  "they  must  also 
as  well  as  the  rest  submit  themselves  and  be  obedient  to  the  just 
and  lawful  authority  of  the  officers  of  the  church."  * 

And  as  the  clerical  mind  constantly  assumes  that  ecclesiastical 
privilege  is  identical  with  religion,  and  that  the  maintenance 
of  the  one  is  the  furtherance  of  the  other,  so  Cartwright  demands 
"that  the  civil  magistrate  (the  nurse  and  foster-father  of  the 
church)  shall  do  well  to  provide  some  sharpe  punishment  for 
those  that  contemn  this  censure  and  discipline  of  the  church,  for 
no  doubt  it  is  in  the  degree  of  blasphemy,  of  a  heathen  our 
Saviour  faith,  that  renounceth  God  and  Christ,  and  thus  much 
of  that."  ^ 

While  on  the  other  hand  the  magistrate  has  his  office  "  which 
consisteth  in  those  things  which  belong  to  our  life  and  our 
goods,  and  hath  not  to  do  with  the  holy  ceremonies."  '  Thus 
high-church  Presbyterianism  shares  with  Gregory  the  Great  the 
theory  of  relationship  between  Church  and  State  now  maintained 
by  the  Vatican,*  and  like  the  Roman  Catholic  system  rested 
upon  the  belief  in  an  outward  infallible  guide  in  faith  and 
practice. 

In  England  the  Puritan  movement  never  did  more  than  leaven  a 
litde  England's  life.  Presbyterianism  never  really  controlled  that 
life.  But  it  was  otherwise  in  Scotland,  where  substantially  the 
ethics  of  Puritanism  became  the  dominant  theory  of  the  nation. 

'  Cartwright's  translation  of  Travers's  "Discipline,"  p.  102,  of  the  1617  reprint 
(Bodleian). 

*  "Second  Admonition,"  p.  60,  of  the  reprint  of  1617. 

'  Cartwright's  translation  of  Travers's  "Discipline,"  p.  43,  reprint  of  1617. 

*  Some  of  the  best  statements  of  this  position  have  resulted  from  Rome's  late 
controversy  with  France. 


404  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

No  one  did  more  to  bring  this  about  than  brave  old  John 
Knox. 

The  ethical  outlook  of  John  Knox  *  is  wholly  dominated  by 
his  theory  of  the  relationship  existing  between  the  Church  and 
State.  Under  the  influence  of  Calvin  he  took  over  with  but 
slight  modification  the  theory  as  formulated  in  Roman  Catholi- 
cism by  Gregory  the  Great  and  which  pervades  the  scholastic 
development.  The  Church  and  State  are  both  subject  to  the 
word  of  God,  but  the  Church  is  the  interpreter  of  God's  word 
to  the  State.     Nowhere  is  this  more   clearly   taught  than  in 


John  Knox  (1505-1572)  was  born  at  Haddington.  He  was  educated  for 
the  priesthood,  but  in  1544  turned  to  the  newer  way  of  thinking,  and  in  1547  was 
called  to  the  ministry  at  St.  Andrews.  When  St.  Andrews  was  taken  by  the 
French  he  was,  contrary  to  the  stipulations  of  surrender,  made  to  serve  in  a 
French  galley.  On  his  release,  probably  by  the  direct  request  of  the  English 
king,  he  went  to  England  and  became  preacher  at  Berwick.  Soon  after  he  be- 
came one  of  the  six  chaplains  to  Edward  VI  (1551).  He  declined  all  preferment, 
and  on  Mary's  accession  fled  to  the  Continent.  He  acted  for  a  little  while  as  the 
minister  to  the  colony  at  Frankfort  a.  M.,  and  then  in  Geneva.  In  1555  he 
began  his  real  labors  for  Scotland,  which  were  only  interrupted,  and  not  broken 
ofiF,  by  his  further  visit  to  Geneva.  In  1559  he  left  Geneva  finally  and  joined  the 
Protestant  insurgents  in  Scotland.  He  was  twice  married,  and  had  two  sons  and 
three  daughters.  His  ministry  in  Edinburgh  was  really  to  the  whole  of  Scotland, 
and  upon  the  establishment  of  the  reformed  faith  as  Scotland's  religion  he  was 
the  life  and  leader  not  only  of  the  Scottish  church  but  of  the  Scottish  nation. 
His  life,  by  Thomas  McCrie  (Edinburgh,  1840),  has  been  republished  with 
critical  notes  by  A.  Crichton  (Belfast,  1874;  later  edition,  London,  1880  and 
1889,  Nelson  &  Sons),  but  still  needs  critical  revision.  His  collected  works  are  in 
six  volumes  by  David  Laing  (Edinburgh,  1846-1864,  Woodrow  Society).  Cj. 
also  Lorimer's  (Peter)  "John  Knox  and  the  Church  of  England,  His  Work  in 
Her  Pulpit,  &c,"  London,  1875.  A  recent  celebration  called  out  a  mass  of 
literature,  but  of  unequal  critical  value,  and  some  of  it  of  no  value  at  all. 

Among  the  more  important  books  on  Knox  are:  Stalker,  James:  "John 
Knox:  His  Ideas  and  Ideals,"  New  York,  Armstrong,  1904;  Glasse,  John: 
"John  Knox:  A  Criticism  and  an  Appreciation,"  London,  Black,  1905;  Lang, 
Andrew:  "John  Knox  and  the  Reformation,"  London,  Longmans,  1905;  Cowan, 
Henry:  "John  Knox,  the  Hero  of  the  Scottish  Reformation"  ("Heroes  o^ the 
Reformation"  series),  New  York,  Putnam,  1905;  Huraut,  Eticnne:  "John 
Knox  et  ses  relations  avec  les  ^glises  r^form^cs  du  continent"  (Th^se  Paris), 
Cahors,  1902;  Rogers,  Charles:  "Genealogical  Memoirs  of  John  Knox  and  the 
Family  of  Knox,"  London,  1879;  Brown,  Peter  Hume:  "John  Knox:  A 
Biography,"  London,  3  vols.,  1895. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  PURITANISM  405 

Knox's  "  Confession  of  Faith  "  at  Edinburgh/  Here  we  find  set 
forth  the  foundation  of  "The  Church"  in  the  Protevangelium, 
and  the  Old  Testament  is  the  history  of  the  church  from  Adam 
to  Christ. 

In  the  sixteenth  chapter  we  have  the  notes  of  the  church.  It 
is  a  "  company  of  men  who,  chosen  of  God,  rightly  worship  and 
embrace  him."  It  is  marked  by  "  true  faith  in  Christ,"  and  "  is 
the  body  and  spouse  of  Christ  Jesus,"  is  Catholic  and  therefore 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  and  one  baptism,  "and  out  of  the  which 
kirk  there  is  neither  life  nor  eternal  felicity,"  and  "therefore  we 
utterly  abhor  the  blasphemy  of  those  that  affirm  that  men  which 
live  according  to  equity  and  justice  shall  be  saved,  what  religion 
soever  they  have  professed."  And  alas,  "  this  church  is  invis- 
ible and  known  only  to  God." 

In  the  eighteenth  chapter,  however,  it  is  denied  that  the  notes 
of  the  true  church  are  either  antiquity  or  usurped  title,  lineal 
descent,  place  appointed,  or  multitude  of  men  in  any  error, 
but  are  "the  true  preaching  of  the  word  of  God,"  the  "right 
administration  of  the  sacraments,"  and  "ecclesiastical  discipline, 
ministered  as  God's  word  does  prescribe,  whereby  vice  is  sup- 
pressed and  virtue  nourished."  ^  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Knox 
disclaims  personal  or  public  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  and  says 
that  only  the  spirit  of  God  can  rightly  interpret  it.  Councils 
therefore  can  err,  and  although  to  be  treated  with  respect  they 
must  be  tested  by  Scripture.  The  sacraments  are  the  continu- 
ance of  circumcision  and  the  passover,^  and  they  are  more  than 
signs:  by  them  grace  is  imparted.  We  have  all  the  foundations 
here  for  a  new  priesdy  structure,  which  Knox  then  builds  up  out 
of  the  ordained  eldership.  Only  a  "lawful  ministry  appointed 
to  preach  the  word"  can  righdy  administer  the  sacraments,  and 
they  must  be  administered  in  the  "ways  of  God's  appointment." 
Here  we  see  plainly  the  conception  of  sacramental  magic  in  the 
power  of  a  priesthood  coming  back  into  Protestantism,  or  per- 

1  "Works,"  vol.  II,  pp.  95-120. 
*  "Works,"  vol.  II,  pp.  109-110. 
'"Works,"  vol.  II,  p.  113. 


4o6  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

haps  more  accurately,  never  having  been  clearly  enough  repu- 
diated, and  so  again  re-establishing  themselves.* 

It  is  now  only  a  step  to  ask  the  State  (magistrate)  to  maintain 
by  force  this  new  priestly  structure,  and  this  Knox  accordingly, 
following  in  the  footsteps  of  Calvin,  proceeds  to  do.  Knox 
boldly  says  that  to  the  civil  magistrate  pertains  "chiefly  and 
most  principally  the  reformation  and  purgation  of  religion." 
They  are  appointed  "for  suppressing  idolatry  and  superstition 
as  David"  suppressed  false  teachers.  Parliament,  therefore,  is 
asked  to  pass  acts  forbidding  mass,  and  to  place  penalties  for 
being  either  present  or  saying  or  hearing  of  it.  These  punish- 
ments are  to  be  punishment  of  the  body  and  confiscation  of 
goods  for  a  first  offence,  then  banishment  or  death. 

All  doctrine  repugnant  to  the  word  of  God  (which  in  point  of 
fact  is  alone  interpreted  by  a  priestly  ministry)  is  by  Parliament 
to  be  utterly  suppressed  "  as  damnable  to  man's  salvation.^  All 
teachers  of  false  doctrine  "ought  not  to  escape  the  punishment 
of  the  civil  magistrate."  Only  duly  "elected,  examined,  and 
admitted  ministers"  are  given  any  real  voice  in  the  interpretation 
of  Scripture,  so  that  the  State  has  simply  to  do  again  the  bidding 
of  the  priest.  The  "office  and  duty  of  the  godly  magistrate  is 
not  only  to  purge  the  church  of  God  from  all  superstition  and 
to  set  at  liberty  from  bondage  of  tyranny,  but  to  provide  .  .  . 
how  it  may  abide  in  the  same  purity  to  the  posterity."  ' 

The  bann  with  all  its  horrors,  including  the  withholding  of 
baptism  from  helpless  children,  is  reinstated  in  the  "Book  of 
Discipline,"  *  and  although  the  book  with  true  priestly  unction 
says,  "  We  do  not  dare  to  prescribe  unto  you  what  penalties  shall 
be  required  of  such  .  .  .  ,  but  we  affirm  that  the  one  and  the 
other  deserve  death."  ' 

As  Knox  took  over  the  Roman  Catholic  theory  of  the  two 
swords,  and  the  practical  hegemony  of  the  churchly  sword,  so 
he  took  over  the  Roman  Catholic  conception  of  God.     With  the 

'  "Works,"  vol.  II,  pp.  1 1 5-1 17.  =  "Works,"  vol.  II,  p.  185. 

'  "Works,"  vol.  II,  p.  209.  *  "Works,"  vol.  II,  p.  254. 

•  "Book  of  Discipline,"  "Works,"  vol.  II,  p.  254. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   PURITANISM  407 

dogmatic  structure  we  are  not  concerned,  but  in  its  ethical 
significance  the  God  of  John  KnOx  is  the  God  of  mediaeval  the- 
ology. In  the  actual  life  and  piety  of  Catholicism,  however, 
there  is  put  between  the  worshipper  and  the  law-giving  Creator 
and  Ruler  the  gentle  Virgin  Mary,  the  suffering,  crucified  man, 
the  babe,  the  saints,  the  sacramental  forgiveness  system.  What- 
ever the  dogmatic  weaknesses  of  this  may  be,  the  ethical  outcome 
is  a  thought  of  God  far  less  hard  and  inhuman  than  the  God 
of  dogmatical  theory. 

In  Knox's  picture  of  God  all  save  the  cross  drops  away,  and 
the  cross  is  largely  used  to  bring  into  sharp  relief  not  the  human 
heart  of  God,  but  the  wickedness  of  man.  In  spite  of  tender 
devotion  to  the  Saviour,  which  beautifully  marks  the  piety  of 
Knox  from  beginning  to  end,  the  thought  of  God  is  hard,  fierce, 
and  even  passionate  with  profoundly  human  anger.  God  is  a 
God  of  vengeance  ^  who  visits  his  wrath  in  the  manner  of 
Jehovah  of  Chronicles  upon  the  nation  for  not  driving  out  the 
"idolatry  of  the  mass."  Knox  was  an  Old  Testament  prophet 
of  the  eighth  century,  but  not  a  proclaimer  of  the  evangel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Any  one  who  reads  the  almost  coarse  diatribes 
must  remember  Knox's  experience  of  the  galley  and  exile  to 
even  excuse  them.^ 

It  is  not,  therefore,  strange  that,  like  Calvin,  Knox  also  took 
over  the  intellectualism  (Aristotelian)  of  the  mediaeval  scholasti- 
cism. He  has  a  pathetic  faith  in  dialectics,  and  is  sure  that  a 
debate  would  convince  Queen  Mary  of  the  truth  of  Protestant- 
ism, and  he  assures  Mary  that  God's  word  is  absolutely  plain  to 
all  but  wilful  ignorance,  and  that  in  the  face  of  the  divisions  in 
Protestantism  confessedly  arising  among  the  best  of  the  leaders.' 

His  point  of  view  is  the  old  familiar  conception  of  an  absolute 
external  authority,  only  for  Knox  it  is  the  letter  of  Scripture 


»  "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  166;  c}.  also  vol.  IV,  p.  33. 

'C/.,  especially,  "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  259-330,  or  pp.  157-215  of  the  same 
volume,  or  the  paganism  of  the  prayer,  on  p.  286. 

'The  dialogue  with  Mary  is  reported  by  himself  in  his  history,  "Works," 
vol.  II,  book  IV,  p.  284,  and  has  nothing  hard  or  disrespectful  to  Mary  in  it. 


4o8  HISTORY   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

arbitrarily  torn  from  its  literary  and  historical  setting  and  made 
almost  a  fetish  of/ 

A  regular,  god-fearing,  lawfully  appointed  ministry  is  put  in  the 
place  of  the  Pope  to  direct  the  civil  sword  and  so  secure  man's 
safety  by  perpetuating  sound  doctrine  and  severe  discipline. 

A  mind  still  so  fettered  by  scholasticism  could  not  be  expected 
to  shake  off  its  superstition,  and  there  is  abundant  evidence  both 
in  Knox  and  Scottish  life  of  this  survival.^  His  view  of  life  is 
shadowed  over  by  the  darknesses  and  dimnesses  of  a  pagan  fear 
of  God.  The  bright  evangelical  confidence  so  missing  also  in 
Calvin  is  much  lacking  in  Knox.  He  takes  a  naturally  dark 
view  of  life  ^  as  evil.  One  cannot  but  read  with  sorrow  and 
pity  the  sad  letter  he  writes  to  the  dear  friend  and  faithful  fellow- 
sufferer  for  the  faith  whom  he  had  in  Mrs.  Bowes,  his  mother- 
in-law.  He  writes  of  her  that  "  I  have  seen  her  (not  for  a  start, 
but  in  long  continuance)  pour  forth  tears,  and  send  to  God 
dolorous  complaints,  oftener  than  ever  I  heard  man  or  woman 
in  my  life."  *  The  poor  woman  was  troubled  by  the  thought 
that  she  might  not  be  of  the  elect,  and  in  John  Knox's  letter  of 
"comfort,"  he  practically  tells  her  she  cannot  know,  but  must 
act  as  if  she  were  although  it  will  have  no  possible  bearing  upon 
the  matter,  as  God's  sovereign  will  and  his  own  glory  is  the  only 
end.'^ 

His  own  faith  rested  really  on  an  intellectual  perception  of 
Jesus  Christ.  He  writes:  "Except  our  comfort  be  grounded 
upon  the  foundation  which  never  can  be  moved,  it  is  not  perfect. 
And  that  ground  is  this,  that  when  we  understand  that  presently 
we  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  because  we  were  ordained  before  the 
beginning  of  all  times  to  believe  in  him;  as  in  him  we  were 
elected  to  the  society  of  eternal  life,  then  is  our  faith  assuredly 
grounded,  and  that  because  the  gifts  and  vocation  of  God  are 

'  C).  "Letter  of  Wholesome  Counsel,"  "Works,"  vol.  IV,  p.  136. 
'  C}.,  for  example,  "Works,"  vol.  II;    "History,"  book  IV,  p.  269,  where 
Mary's  landing  brought  bad  weather! 

*  Sec  his  letter  to  England  (1554),  "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  259-330. 

*  "Works,"  vol.  VI.  p.  514.  *  "Works,"  vol.  VI,  pp.  515-520. 


THE   ETHICS    OF   PURITANISM  409 

without  repentance."  *  And  again,  as  "  therefore  faith  springeth 
from  election,  so  it  is  estabHshed  by  the  true  knowledge  of  that 
doctrine  only,  which  this  day  is  most  furiously  oppugned  by 
those  who  do  not  understand  the  same."  ^ 

For  Knox,  God's  glory  is  the  end  of  all  life,  and  all  means 
therefore  to  that  end  are  justifiable.^  It  is  tremendous  faith,  but 
divorced  from  the  kingdom  of  God  as  his  truest  glory  it  makes 
sad  shipwreck  of  the  Gospel.  To  the  political  student  must  be 
left  the  services  of  Knox  to  Scotland  which  were  very  great  in- 
deed. But  the  student  of  ethics  comes  away  from  the  study  of 
Puritan  thought  as  seen  in  Knox  with  the  profound  conviction 
that  whatever  gains  the  Reformation  made  in  systematic  ethics 
were  not  made  by  Puritanism,  but  rather  in  spite  of  it;  and  that, 
however  splendid  its  record  as  a  religious  force,  as  an  ethical 
teacher  it  was  too  fast  bound  in  scholasticism  to  advance  our 
ethical  freedom  in  Christ  Jesus. 

The  aristocratic  character  of  the  whole  tone  of  Puritan  thought 
is  bound  up  with  its  very  conception  of  an  elected  few  to  whom 
God  has  given  the  governance  of  this  life  and  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom.  Exactly  as  the  hierarchy  of  Rome  is  fundamentally 
incompatible  with  democracy,  so  the  whole  ethical  outlook  of 
Puritanism  presupposes  an  aristocratic  structure  of  society,  and 
cannot  cherish  equal  opportunity  for  every  man  as  even  an  ideal. 
Exactly  as  the  Roman  church  opened  a  door  of  hope  to  the 
economically  oppressed  by  which  to  enter  the  ranks  of  special 
privilege,  so  Puritanism  by  its  doctrine  of  election  and  its  open 
appointed  ministry  made  the  basis  of  aristocracy  broader  than 
birth  or  possession;  but  the  structure  of  its  life  remains  the 
dominance  of  the  many  by  the  few,  its  faith  is  in  the  elect,  and 
through  its  teaching  there  breathes  almost  a  contempt  for  the 
common  unprivileged  man. 

'  "Works,"  vol.  V,  p.  27. 
2  "Works,"  vol.  V,  p.  28. 
'  "Works,"  vol.  V,  pp.  405-406. 


4IO  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

IV.      THE  ETHICS  OF  ANGLO-CATHOLICISM 

However  violent  and  outrageous  the  conduct  of  Henry  VIII 
was  in  his  rude  separation  from  Rome,  and  in  his  confiscation 
of  the  property  of  the  Roman  church,  at  least  this  must  be  said 
for  him,  that  he  succeeded  in  gathering  about  him  strong  men 
and  women,  who  were  genuinely  loyal  to  the  new  and  somewhat 
anomalous  ecclesiastical  creation.  Cranmer,  Ridley,  Latimer, 
Hooper  had  able  successors  in  Whitgift,  Jewel,  Hooker,  and 
Laud.  With  all  its  faults  the  church  Henry  VIII  founded  and 
gave  substantially  character  to  has  enlisted  the  passionate  de- 
votion of  countless  thousands  in  generation  after  generation 
of  earnest  men  and  women  ever  since. 

This  Anglo-Catholicism  has  also  produced  a  distinct  type  of 
both  ethical  thought  and  feeling.  It  is  true  that  the  main  out- 
lines are  taken  over  bodily  from  mediaeval  thinking,  and  that  it 
has  no  very  constant  or  normal  type,  nay,  it  boasts  often  of  its 
very  comprehensive  character.  The  true  significance  of  this 
catholicity  is  the  fact  that  the  centre  of  its  organizing  life,  and 
its  really  dominant  interest,  is  not  chiefly  either  intellectual  nor 
yet  emotional,  but  political  and  cultural.  This  has  given  it  an 
exceedingly  definite  character,  and  many  things  otherwise  quite 
inexplicable  in  its  history  are  plain  when  this  fact  is  remem.bered. 
Hence  this  special  character  and  interest  must  be  studied  in 
any  examination  of  the  ethics  of  the  Reformation  period. 

The  story  of  the  rapid  shifts  and  changes  in  the  ecclesiastical 
world  from  Henry  VIII  up  to  the  revolution  (1688)  is  a  sad 
and  humiliating  one.  The  pages  of  history  are  dark  with 
evasions  and  cowardice,  with  brutal  violence  and  mad  fanaticism. 
But  there  were  also  hosts  of  men  and  women,  both  Protestant 
and  Roman  Catholic,  who  vindicated  the  essential  nobility  of 
conscience  and  the  strength  of  moral  feeling  by  dying  rather 
than  betray  the  faith  in  which  they  had  found  peace.  Martyr- 
dom does  not  prove  the  truth  of  the  martyr's  opinions,  but  it 
does  demonstrate  the  truth  of  the  martyr.  And  through  all  the 
strife  and  turmoil  there  were,  no  doubt,  also  hundreds  of  quiet. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   ANGLO-CATHOLICISM      411 

earnest  persons  whose  substantial  working  faith  remained  un- 
touched by  all  the  outward  changes. 

Lollardism  as  such  had  early  become  identified  with  the  pro- 
letariat struggle  for  political  and  social  recognition.  This 
proletariat  movement  was  seemingly  crushed.  The  Reforma- 
tion tended  temporarily  to  advance  local  and  national  despotism. 
For  the  appeal  to  Rome  against  despotism  had  been  an  ever- 
present  threat  and  was  sometimes  a  most  effective  weapon. 
Such  appeals  to  be  effective  had  to  tally,  no  doubt,  with  Rome's 
political  interest,  but  the  mere  danger  of  appeal  kept  a  check  on 
tyranny.  Rome  and  local  despotism  had,  however,  combined 
to  root  out  Lollardism  as  a  political  and  religious  movement. 
Dr.  Gairdner  ^  assumes  that  therefore  Lollardism  had  but  little 
to  do  with  the  Reformation.  He  surely  forgets  that  the  crush- 
ing of  an  organized  movement  does  not  by  any  means  imply 
the  destruction  of  the  ideals  and  fundamental  faiths  that  un- 
derlie it. 

Henry  VIII,  with  all  his  power,  would  have  been  perfectly 
helpless  in  the  face  of  Rome  had  not  a  large  minority,  at  least, 
of  the  nation  been  with  him,  and  had  not  the  ideals  of  Lollardism 
really  undermined  the  unity  of  opinion  upon  which  alone  Rome 
can  stand  her  ground.  The  crushing  out  of  Swynderly  and  his 
following,  and  the  burning  of  men  like  Sawtre  (sometimes  spelt 
Chatrys),  and  indeed  the  workings  of  the  whole  evil  statute  de 
HcEretico  Comhurendo,^  might  put  Lollardism  as  an  organized 
movement  outside  the  pale,  but  no  such  measures  could  stop 
men  thinking  along  Lollard  lines. 

The  real  weakness  of  Wyclif's  movement  was  that  it  seemed 
most  dangerous  to  the  newly  rising  middle-class  and  the  recently 
created  nobility.  For  a  glance  at  the  history  of  England's  great 
families  shows  how  rapid  had  been  the  changes  there.^    This 

'Gairdner,  Dr.  James:  "Lollardy  and  the  Reformation  in  England,"  an 
historical  essay,  2  vols.,  London,  Macmillan,  1908. 

"^  Stat.  2,  Hen.  IV,  cap.  15  (1401). 

'  The  story  of  these  changes  has  yet  to  be  satisfactorily  written.  The  under- 
lying economic  causes  are  hinted  at  by  Rogers  (James  Edwin  Thorold)  in  his 
"  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages  .  .  .  ,"  3d  ed.,  London,  Swan  Sonnenschein, 


412  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

new  aristocracy  was  hungry  and  did  not  mind  gobbling  up  the 
possessions  of  the  monasteries,  although  as  over  against  the 
proletariat  it  was  exceedingly  sound  upon  the  rights  of  property. 

When,  therefore,  Henry  VIII  proclaimed  a  national  Catholic 
church  he  addressed  himself  not  only  to  a  deep  national  feeing, 
and  profited  by  the  hopes  he  awakened  for  freedom  and  new  life 
amidst  dogmatic  and  material  oppressions  by  the  Roman  hier- 
archy, but  he  also  gave  material  re-enforcement  to  this  new 
aristocracy. 

Men  had,  alas,  become  accustomed  to  associate  the  head  of  the 
church  with  vice  and  untruthfulness,  so  that  as  compared  with 
some  of  the  popes  even  Henry  VIII  was  not  too  shocking.  Nor 
had  men  as  carefully  considered  the  basis  of  Church  and  State 
as  they  were  compelled  to  do  in  the  later  years  of  Edward  VI, 
Mary  and  Elizabeth,  and  later  still  under  the  Stuarts.  The 
expansion  of  England's  power  was  so  great  that  many  funda- 
mental questions  could  wait  for  their  answer.  It  was  in  intense 
action  that  Anglo-Catholicism  formulated  its  ethical  ideals. 

In  those  days  every  religious  movement  followed  in  the  wake 
of  Rome  and  sought  immediate  political  expression.  Anglo- 
Catholicism  found  it  in  Laud  and  the  Stuarts;  Presbyterian 
Puritanism  in  John  Knox  and  the  Westminster  Assembly;  Inde- 
pendency in  the  Commonwealth  and  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  even 
Quakerism  in  William  Penn  and  Pennsylvania. 

So  it  happened  that  the  great  founders  of  Anglo-Catholicism, 
Whitgift,  Parker,  Jewel,  Bilson,  Bancroft,  Hooker,  Laud,  were 
rather  statesmen  and  ecclesiastics  than  students  of  systematic 
ethics.  Yet  they  were  students,  and  remarkably  gifted  and 
learned  students. 

No  organized  movement  stood  at  that  day  openly  for  toleration 
of  differences  in  religious  opinion.'    Toleration  has  always  had 

1890,  and  "The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History,  Lectures,  etc.,"  London, 
T.  F.  Unwin,  1888.  See  also  Marx's  (Karl)  "Das  Kapital,"  English  translation, 
edited  by  Frederick  Engels,  Chicago,  Kerr  &  Co.,  1907-1908  (the  opening 
chapters). 

'  Individual  voices  were  indeed  raised  in  behalf  of  toleration.  So  far  as  the 
writer's  knowledge  goes,  the  earliest  expressions  in  England  are  Busher  (Leonard), 


THE  ETHICS  OF  ANGLO-CATHOLICISM      413 

its  bounds  fixed  by  supposed  social  expediency.  To-day  those 
bounds  are  as  inexact  and  in  some  respects  as  inconsequent  as 
they  were  in  the  days  of  Henry  VIII,  Mary,  and  Elizabeth. 

It  was  as  much  political  necessity  as  ethical  insight  that  stayed 
the  hand  of  persecution.  The  leaders  of  Anglo-Catholicism 
placed  in  the  very  foreground  of  their  teaching  the  unity  of  the 
church,  by  which  they  and  men  generally  understood  uniformity 
of  dogmatic  opinion  and  conformity  to  the  cult.  It  was  both 
logical  and  historical  for  them  to  push  for  that  unity  by  political 
force.  Puritan  Presbyterianism  within  the  established  church 
was  pressing  for  exactly  the  same  ideal  of  uniformity  on  the 
basis  of  other  dogmatic  conceptions  and  another  cult,  and  with 
exactly  the  same  conception  of  exclusive  claim  to  absolute  truth. 
In  the  controversy  between  Travers  and  Richard  Hooker  ^  the 
spirit  of  tolerance  is  more  apparent  in  Hooker  than  in  Travers. 
At  the  same  time  Anglo-Catholicism  could  not  be  true  to  itself 
and  be  really  tolerant  of  that  which  seemed  to  it  to  threaten  the 
vital  things  of  both  Church  and  State. 

In  Whitgift's  controversy  with  Cartwright  ^  the  attempt  is 
made  to  identify  Cartwright's  position  with  the  Anabaptist 
movement,  but  this  was  a  real  misunderstanding  of  the  Puritan 

"Religious  Peace,  or,  a  plea  for  liberty  of  conscience.  .  .  .  Presented  to  King 
James  .  .  .  printed  1614  reprinted  1646,  and  200  years  later  (1846)  by  the 
Hanserd  Knollys  Society,"  London.  Murton  (J.),  "Objections  answered  by  way 
of  dialogue,  wherein  is  proved  by  the  Law  of  God,  by  the  Law  of  the  Land,  etc., 
that  no  man  ought  to  be  persecuted  for  his  religion,  so  he  testifie  his  allegiance 
by  the  oath  appointed  by  law."  Published  anonymously  1615  (reprinted  1846). 
Williams  (Roger),  "The  bloudy  Tennant  of  Persecution  for  cause  of  conscience 
discussed,"  London,  1655  (edited  by  Edward  B.  Underbill,  reprinted  1846-1867 
by  the  Hanserd  Knollys  Society).  Richardson  (Samuel),  "The  necessity  of 
Toleration  in  matters  of  religion,  or,  certain  questions  propounded  to  the  Synod. 
.  .  .  ,"  London,  1647  (reprinted,  1846,  by  the  Hanserd  Knollys  Society,  edited 
by  E.  B.  Underbill).  And  then,  of  course,  the  celebrated  letters  of  Locke  (John) 
on  "Toleration"  closed  the  battle  for  larger  freedom. 

'  Cj.  "A  Supplication  Made  to  the  Council  by  Master  Walter  Travers,"  re- 
printed in  Hooker's  "Works"  (Keble's  edition,  1845),  vol.  HI,  pp.  548-569, 
with  Hooker's  answer  following  it. 

*  See  p.  421  for  Whitgift's  answers;  see  his  "Works,"  edited  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Ayre  for  the  Parker  Society,  in  three  volumes,  1851-1853,  vol.  I  to  vol.  HI,  pp. 
1-564. 


414  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

spirit,  although  there  were  some  reasons  for  thinking  them  alike. 
It  was  a  struggle  for  political  supremacy  between  two  kindred 
spirits  that  gave  to  Anglo-Catholicism  its  organized  body  of 
thought.  This  systematic  presentation  of  its  case  was  classic- 
ally given  by  Richard  Hooker  ^  in  his  famous  work  upon  eccle- 
siastical polity. 

Hooker's  theology  and  ecclesiastical  polity  have  only  indi- 
rectly interest  for  the  student  of  ethics,  and  directly  systematic 
ethical  treatment  is  almost  lacking.^  At  the  same  time  the  ground 
is  so  cleared  and  foundations  are  so  laid  that  the  ethical  thinking 
within  the  English  church  has  been  deeply  influenced  and  fore- 
shadowed by  the  "Polity"  (as  in  Butler  and  Paley). 

Hooker  is  a  most  attractive  writer,  and  has  a  charm  and  grace 
of  character  that  shows  in  all  his  utterances.  In  fact  few  writers 
seem  so  completely  to  reveal  themselves  as  does  Hooker  in  his 
"  Polity."  There  we  see  the  patient,  painstaking,  gentle  scholar, 
timorous  in  almost  every  relation  of  life,  save  on  his  own  field  of 
inquiry,  and  even  there  greatly  hampered  by  excessive  reverence 
for  the  past,  and  the  submissive  deference  of  an  unworldly  man 
for  strong  and  seemingly  triumphant  conditions. 

'  Richard  Hooker  {1553-1600)  was  educated  in  Oxford.  On  his  marriage  he 
had  to  resign  his  fellowship  there,  and  after  a  short  ministry  became  the  Master 
of  the  Temple,  where  Walter  Travers,  the  Puritan  leader,  was  a  "reader." 
Controversy  was  inevitable.  As  Fuller  writes:  "The  pulpit  spake  in  the  morn- 
ing pure  Canterbury  and  in  the  evening  Geneva."  Travers  thus  aroused  Hooker 
to  his  great  defence,  and  after  a  few  years  at  the  Temple  he  begged  for  a  quiet 
parish  in  order  to  finish  what  he  deemed  his  life's  work.  This  request  was 
granted  to  him,  but  the  last  three  books  of  his  "Polity"  have  never  seen  the 
light,  although  he  must  have  finished  them.  What  purports  to  be  the  con- 
clusion has  not  the  full  authority  of  undoubted  authorship.  For  its  character, 
see  Keblc's  preface  to  his  edition  of  Hooker's  "Works"  (7th  ed.,  in  3  vols., 
O.xford,  1888,  a  revised  edition  by  Church  and  Paget).  The  editio  Princeps  is 
of  the  first  four  books  in  1594  and  of  the  fifth  book  in  1597.  (Books  6  to  8, 
purporting  to  be  by  Hooker,  were  not  published  until  1618.) 

Lives  of  Hooker  have  been  written  by  Walton,  J.,  in  Gauden's  (J.,  Bishop  of 
Exeter)  edition  of  the  "Polity"  in  1666,  London,  and  sketches  by  Keble  and 
Paget  in  their  introductions.  Very  helpful  for  the  student  of  Hooker  is  Paget's 
(Francis,  Bishop  of  Oxford)  "Introduction  to  the  Fifth  Book  of  Hooker's 
Treatise  of  the  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  2d  ed.,  Oxford,  1907. 

^  See,  however,  book  V,  cap.  76  ff. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  ANGLO-CATHOLICISM      415 

Not  the  most  bigoted  defender  of  the  estabHshment  would 
now  attempt  to  maintain  the  ideal  character  of  those  conditions. 
They  were  the  outcome  of  rude,  far-seeing,  but  impetuous 
tyranny.  In  God's  good  grace  strong  men  of  earnest  life,  such 
as  we  have  already  mentioned,  and  lesser  ones  like  Thirlby, 
Bonner,  Goodrich,  Cox,  Grindal,  Coverdale,  Sandys,  Fox,  made 
an  apostolic  succession  to  whom  even  these  conditions  came  as 
opportunity.  Yet  one  cannot  but  feel  as  one  reads  Hooker's 
noble  plea  that  it  is  often  special  pleading  and  lacks  both  histor- 
ical background  and  philosophic  thoroughness.  His  justified 
impatience  with  much  in  the  Puritan's  position  blinded  him 
unduly  to  the  great  ethical  questions  to  which  they  were  giving 
their  fiercely  dogmatic  answer.  There  is  much  in  Hooker  that 
reminds  the  reader  of  Melanchthon,  and  like  Melanchthon, 
Hooker  took  refuge  again  in  the  essential  a  prioriism  of  the 
scholastics. 

We  have  seen  in  our  former  chapters  how  scholasticism  is 
essentially  an  attempt  to  superimpose  upon  the  rational  founda- 
tion supplied  by  pagan  culture  a  supernatural  structure  born 
of  tradition,  with  its  two  component  parts  of  Scripture  and  the 
traditional  creeds  of  the  church.  The  quiet  assumption  was 
that  this  system  was  rational  and  could  be  thoroughly  rational- 
ized. This  is  the  foremost  presumption  of  Hooker.^  For  him 
the  curious  historical  compromise  that  resulted  in  the  estab- 
lished church  of  England  was  a  fixed  system  built  upon  reason. 
Scripture,  and  church  tradition;  his  task  was  to  rationalize  that 
system,  and  within  it  he  sought  room  for  all  that  world  of  modern 
doubt  and  difficulty  that  had  just  been  opened  to  men's  excited 
hopes  and  fears. 

It  is  difficult,  as  we  have  seen,  to  contrast  objectively  the  mo- 
rality of  one  age  with  another,  but  in  the  literature  of  the  period, 
and  particularly  in  Hooker,  one  sees  reflected  the  ethical  conf u- 

>  "Some  things  she  (Wisdom)  openeth  by  the  Sacred  Scriptures;  some  things 
by  the  glorious  works  of  Nature;  with  some  things  she  inspireth  them  from  above 
by  heavenly  influence;  in  some  things  she  leadeth  and  traineth  them  only  by 
worldly  experience  and  practice,"  book  II,  i  :  4. 


4i6  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

sion  of  the  new  era.  The  Puritan  party  had  Geneva,  with  its 
stern  attempt  at  legal  suppression,  ever  in  view.  The  ethical 
aims  were  undoubted,  the  means  for  reaching  those  aims  Hooker 
exposes  to  a  searching  and  prolonged  criticism.^  He  does  not 
deny  that  men  need  authority  and  indeed  has  a  somewhat  ar- 
istocratic contempt  for  the  common  herd.  He  no  doubt  sym- 
pathized with  Calvin  when,  as  he  writes,  that  great  Geneva 
preacher,  "considered  how  dangerous  it  was  that  the  whole 
estate  of  that  church  should  hang  still  on  so  slender  a  thread  as 
the  liking  of  an  ignorant  multitude  is."  ^  He  takes,  however, 
issue  with  the  Puritan  demand  that  Scripture  should  be  the  one 
sole  rule  for  the  determination  of  all  things  great  and  small  in  the 
common  life,  "  For  in  every  action  of  common  life  to  find  out  some 
sentence  clearly  and  infallibly  setting  before  our  eyes  what  we 
ought  to  do  (seem  we  in  Scripture  ever  so  expert)  would  trouble  us 
more  than  we  are  aware."  ^  Hence  in  a  certain  range  of  moral 
action,  as  well  as  in  ecclesiastical  government,  men's  common 
sense  must  govern  them.  It  is  alike  injurious  to  Scripture  to  claim, 
as  Rome  does,  that  it  is  insufficient  without  tradition  for  salvation, 
or  to  do  as  the  Puritans  do,  and  claim  that  it  suffices  for  life  without 
the  use  of  men's  reason.*  With  these  two  guides  mankind  has  all 
that  is  needed  for  "everlasting  felicity."  "It  sufficeth  therefore 
that  nature  and  Scripture  do  serve  in  such  full  sort  that  they 
both  jointly  and  not  severally  either  of  them  be  so  complete 
that  unto  everlasting  felicity  we  need  not  the  knowledge  of  any- 
thing more  than  these  two  may  easily  furnish  our  minds  on  all 
sides." ' 

Hooker  is  thus  deeply  influenced  by  the  somewhat  loose 
theory  of  knowledge  fashionable  in  humanistic  circles.  He 
would  maintain  the  thorough-going  trustworthiness  of  reason 
in  a  way  Puritanism  has  always  regarded  as  distinctly  irreligious.' 
Authority  must  never  be  either  against  or  above  reason.     At 

*  Preface,  chaps,  i  and  2,  pp.  125-142,  Keble's  3d  cd.,  1855. 

'  Preface,  chap.  2,  i.  *  Book  II,  chap.  8.  §  7. 

*  Book  II,  chap.  8,  §  7.  *  Book  I,  chap.  14,  §  5. 

"See,  as  illustrative  of  many  passages,  particularly  book  11,  chap.  7,  §§  i-io. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  ANGLO-CATHOLICISM      417 

the  same  time  we  notice  that  it  is  the  reason  of  the  expert  in  the 
higher  matters  of  life  and  in  the  fields  of  more  erudite  inquiry. 
The  apostolic  tradition  is  not  always  binding,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  oscula  sancta,  or  holy  kiss,  which  was  harmless  in  apostolic 
times,  but  would  now  be  scandalous,  though  commanded.^ 
Hence  there  is  need  of  a  strong  final  and  authoritative  decision 
in  matters  of  dispute,  and  these  things  are  found  by  Hooker  in 
either  the  submission  to  the  public  order  or  to  a  general  synod.^ 

He  then  devotes  his  first  book  to  a  discussion  of  what  law 
really  is  and  what  are  the  kinds  of  law  and  its  various  effects. 
It  is  characteristic  of  Hooker  that  he  neglects  the  discussions 
which  were  having  such  powerful  influence  upon  men's  minds 
in  relation  to  the  degree  and  character  of  secular  authority.' 
He  goes  back  to  Aristotle,  and  even  Aristotle  is,  of  course,  inter- 
preted and  supplemented  in  true  scholastic  fashion  by  sayings 
from  the  Old  Testament. 

Law,  Hooker  defines  broadly  as  "any  kind  of  rule  or  canon 
whereby  actions  are  framed."  *  God  is  thus  by  his  perfection 
an  eternal  law  unto  himself,  and  this  law  he  imposes  upon  his 
creation.  Upon  natural  agents  as  the  law  of  their  kind,  which 
they  keep  unwittingly  as  individuals  and  as  societies.  Upon 
angels,  who  are  bound  by  it  in  their  being,  their  relations  to  one 
another  in  a  hierarchy,  and  in  this  relation  to  us.  Then  also 
it  is  imposed  upon  men  as  a  law  of  perfection,  or  progress 
toward  perfection,  by  the  knowledge  of  truth  and  the  exercise 
of  virtue.*  These  laws  again  are  natural  laws  of  reason; 
supernatural  laws  revealed  by  God,  to  teach  men  how  to  reach 
the  final  goal  of  perfect  felicity  in  God;  and  human  laws,  which 
are  imposed  by  societies,  and  rest  upon  consent,  express  or 

>  Rom.  16  :  16;  II  Cor.  13  :  12;  I  Thess.  5  :  26;  I  Pet.  5  :  14.  Cf.  Tertullian, 
"Lib  de  Oratione,"  chap.  14.  ^  Preface,  chap.  6,  §§  3-6. 

*  It  is  natural  to  seek,  in  Hooker's  first  book  some  reference  to  Wyclif's  "De 
Dominlo  Divino,"  or  Fitz-Ralph's  "  De  Pauperie  Salvatoris,"  or  Marsilius  of 
Padua's  "Defensor  Pacis,"  or  Machiavelli's  "Prince,"  but  there  are  no  such 
references.  In  book  V,  chap.  2,  §  4,  there  is  a  reference  to  MachiaveUi's 
"Prince,"  but  it  is  slight  and  contemptuous. 

*  Book  I,  chap.  3,  §  i.  '  Book  I,  chaps.  3-7. 


4i8  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

implicit,  and  are  binding  by  reason  of  the  natural  law  God  has 
implanted  in  societies  for  binding  them  together/ 

All  of  these  laws  are  either  pure,  i.  e.,  have  reference  to  perfect 
nature,  or  they  are  mixed,  i.  e.,  have  their  reference  to  corrupted 
nature. 

Man's  highest  good  is  communion  with  God  thought  of  in 
terms  of  Augustine's  Platonism,^  and  reason  alone  cannot  give 
us  the  conception  of  eternal  "felicity  and  bliss."  A  desire  for 
happiness  is  natural,  but  this  happiness  may  be  either  sensuous, 
intellectual,  or  spiritual  and  divine,  unto  which  latter  "we  tend 
by  supernatural  means  here,  but  cannot  here  attain  unto  them." 
,  These  are  the  familiar  scholastic  evangelical  virtues  of  faith, 
^  hope,  and  charity,  with  the  supernatural  duties  they  bring  in 
their  train.' 

Thus  into  Hooker's  ethics  and  into  the  ethics  of  the  whole 
Anglo-Catholic  school  down  to  Newman  is  introduced  the  fatal 
intellectual  dualism,  so  destructive  of  clear  thinking,  between  the 
natural  and  the  supernatural  claims  upon  conscience.*  This 
confusion  is  abundantly  obvious  in  Hooker.  "When  super- 
natural duties  are  necessarily  exacted,  natural  are  not  rejected 
as  needless,"  ^  and  so  Hooker  goes  on  to  attempt  a  reasonable 
separation  between  things  essential  and  non-essential. 

He  does  this  under  the  category  of  natural  and  positive,  and 
all  laws  supernatural  as  such  are  positive.  But  all  the  laws  of 
Scripture  are  not  immutable.  "  Positive  laws  are  either  perman- 
ent or  else  changeable,  according  as  the  matter  itself  is  concern- 
ing which  they  were  first  made."  The  church  is  a  "supernatural 
society"  and  "doth  differ  from  natural  societies  in  this,  that  the 
persons  unto  whom  we  associate  ourselves,  in  the  one  are  men 
simply  considered  as  men,  but  they  to  whom  we  be  joined  in 
the  other  are  God,  angels,  and  holy  men."  ®    At  the  same  time 

'  Book  I,  chaps.  5-1 1. 

*  Book  I,  chap.  11,  §  3,  and  other  passages.  '  Book  I,  chap.  11. 

*  In  the  appendix  to  the  fifth  book  Hooker  elaborates  this  point,  and  rightly 
cites  Calvin  as  holding  substantially  the  same  position. 

*  Book  I,  chap.  12. 

*  Book  I,  chap.  15,  §  2. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  ANGLO-CATHOLICISM      419 

the  church  is  also  a  society  serving  the  social  instincts  of  men 
and  under  natural  laws. 

In  spite  of  the  care  and  shrewdness  of  Hooker's  discussion  at 
this  point  he  cannot  and  does  not  really  draw  the  lines  between 
Church  and  State,  and  leaves  the  reader  considerably  confused 
as  to  the  relative  weights  of  both  in  case  of  conflict. 

In  the  second  book,  Hooker  has  no  difficulty  in  showing  that 
the  Puritans  cannot  maintain  the  thesis  that  Scripture  is  the 
rule  for  the  whole  of  life,  nor  need  we  stay  to  consider  the  con- 
tention of  the  third  book,  that  Scripture  does  not  supply  a 
polity  in  its  details  complete  de  jure  divino;  *  and  the  fourth  book 
is  equally  unimportant  from  our  point  of  view,  in  which  the 
special  form  of  polity  in  the  established  State  church  is  defended 
with  both  learning  and  acumen. 

The  famous  fifth  book  is  almost  complete  in  itself  as  an 
apology  for  the  existing  ecclesiastical  status  as  Hooker  found 
it,  and  its  ethics  presuppose  the  acceptance  of  the  prevalent 
scholastic  definitions.  It  is  full  of  good  sense  and  many  of  its 
propositions  have  ethical  bearing,  but  it  does  not  deal  directly 
with  systematic  ethics. 

He  establishes  four  first  principles  for  knowing  what  is  accept- 
able to  God.  The  external  religious  life  must  comport  with  the 
greatness  of  God  and  the  dignity  of  religion;  in  doubtful  cases 
the  judgment  of  antiquity  must  establish  a  presumptive  claim; 
the  authority  of  the  church,  though  but  recently  appointed, 
must  have  due  weight  with  obedient  children,  where  no  law 
divine  or  invincible  argument  or  notable  public  inconvenience 
stays  that  obedience;  and  lastly,  the  orders  of  the  church  are 
greater  presumption  in  favor  of  certain  courses  than  private 
opinion,  particularly  when  the  latitude  is  given  which  is  proper. 
Hooker  does  not  carry  his  reasoning  much  further  than  the  polity 
of  the  church,  but  it  is  easy  to  see  along  what  lines  he  would 
have  had  to  develop  his  ethics.    His  whole  position  is  still  that 

'  The  arguments  here  and  elsewhere  seem  so  contradictory  of  much  appearing 
in  book  VII  on  this  subject  that  one  rather  gladly  dismisses  it  as  either  not 
Hooker's  or  not  his  maturest  thought. 


420  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

of  substantial  scholasticism,  only  with  somewhat  diflferent  data 
upon  which  to  work.  The  ministry  is,  of  course,  an  order  and 
indelible  even  after  heresy/ 

The  death  of  even  saints  is  "punishment."^  Contingency 
as  Aquinas  understood  it,  on  the  mediaeval  Aristotelian  basis  is 
defended,'  and  foreknowledge  does  not,  Hooker  thinks,  involve 
necessity. 

On  the  power  of  the  keys,  however,  Hooker  seems  to  regard 
the  end  of  church  discipline  to  be  repentance,  and  to  limit  the 
church's  action  to  this  life.^  At  the  same  time  he  held  high 
doctrine  with  regard  to  the  sacraments.  "  Sacraments  serve  as 
the  instruments  of  God  to  that  end  and  purpose,"  i.  e.,  imparting 
the  saving  grace  which  Christ  originally  is,  "moral  instruments 
the  use  whereof  is  in  our  hands,  the  effect  in  his;  for  the  use  we 
have  his  express  command,  for  the  efifect  his  conditional  prom- 
ise." ^  And  "  Baptism  is  an  action  in  part  moral,  in  part 
ecclesiastical,  and  in  part  mystical :  moral  as  being  a  duty  which 
men  perform  toward  God;  ecclesiastical,  in  that  it  belongeth 
unto  God's  church  as  a  public  duty;  finally,  mystical,  if  we 
respect  what  God  doth  intend  thereby  to  work."  ® 

This  being  the  high-church  position  of  the  reformed  theology, 
and  substantially  representing  Calvin's  position,  yet  having  in 
it  the  assumption  of  grace  linked  to  outward  and  non-moral 
actions  in  a  way  that  comes  painfully  near  to  sacramental  magic 
with  all  its  unethical  concomitants. 

As  over  against  the  Puritan's  position,  though  hardly  the 
equal  of  some  of  the  best  of  the  Puritan  theologians  (Calvin, 
Bucer,  BuUinger)  in  either  logic  or  fearless  dialectic.  Hooker 
is  singularly  effective.  At  the  same  time  the  modern  mind 
recoils  from  some  of  his  most  favorite  assumptions,  and  the 

'  Book  V,  cap.  77,  §  3. 

'  Appendix  i,  to  book  V,  p.  570,  Keble's  3d  ed. 
'  Appendix  i  to  book  V,  p.  559,  Keble's  3d  ed. 

<This  from   book  VI,  chap.   3,   §  i.     Fairly  certainly  from  Hooker's  pen, 
though  perhaps  not  in  place. 
»  Book  V,  57,  §  5. 
•  Book  V,  62,  §  XV. 


THE  ETHICS   OF   ANGLO-CATHOLICISM      421 

impression  of  special  pleading  for  the  existing  condition  just 
because  it  did  exist  weakens  the  book  as  a  whole. 

The  logic  of  the  book  would  be  a  new  absolutism,  without 
some  of  the  historic  safeguards  that  checked  the  papacy  as  an  ec- 
clesiastical power  or  the  spiritual  independency  that  made  Cathol- 
icism more  than  once  a  protection  against  political  tyranny. 

That  this  is  true  may  be  gathered  from  the  struggle  for  abso- 
lute power  of  the  party  to  whom  Hooker's  plea  came  with  great- 
est force.  The  turmoil  and  confusions  of  the  years  from  the 
death  of  Hooker  to  the  revolution  (1688)  can  only  be  under- 
stood when  we  remember  that  high-church  Puritanism  and 
high-church  Episcopacy  were  struggling  for  supreme  and  abso- 
lute power.  Neither  of  them  sought  any  strengthening  of 
democracy,  nor  did  any  real  democracy  ever  become  supreme, 
but  the  platform  upon  which  English  political  life  was  built  up 
was  greatly  widened.  Democracy  gained  ground  amid  the 
disputes  between  the  various  parties. 

Were  we  studying  the  polity  of  Anglo-Catholicism  it  would 
be  our  duty  to  take  up  in  detail  the  answer  of  Whitgijt  ^  to  Cart- 
wright  in  its  bearings  upon  Hooker  and  the  Anglo-Catholic 
movement  in  general,  but  systematic  ethics  was  only  indirectly  in- 
volved in  the  question  of  church  polity.  It  was  directly  involved 
in  the  attempt  to  translate  the  movement  into  political  reality. 

This  attempt  was  made  by  the  strong  hand  of  Archbishop 
Laud,^  whose  horizon  was  narrow  and  unlit  by  historical  spirit. 

*  The  works  of  John  Whitgift,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  three 
volumes,  published  by  the  Parker  Society,  Cambridge,  1851-1853;  "Lives,"  by 
Sir  George  Paule  (the  "  Life  ...  of  John  Whitgift,  Lord  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury," London,  161 2,  1699;  also  in  Wordsworth,  Christopher:  "Ecclesiastical 
Biography,"  etc.,  vol.  IV,  London,  1818),  and  a  sketch  in  vol.  Ill  of  "Works," 
by  the  editor.  Rev.  John  Ayre. 

^  Laud,  William,  was  bom  at  Reading,  1573,  died  1644.  He  was  educated 
at  O.xford,  was  rapidly  advanced.  President  of  St.  Johns  161 1;  Deanery  of 
Gloucester,  1616;  Bishop  of  St.  Davids,  1621;  Bishop  of  London,  1628;  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  1633.  Impeached  by  the  Long  Parliament,  and,  after 
long  waiting,  condemned  and  executed  in  1644  at  the  age  of  seventy-one.  His 
works  are  published  (Oxford)  in  seven  volumes  (nine  parts),  1847-1860.  William 
Scott,  editor  of  vols.  I  and  II,  and  James  Bliss,  editor  of  the  other  volumes.     His 


422  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

His  were  the  legal  ethics  of  absolutism  and  authority.  He  was 
content  with  a  somewhat  loose  appeal  to  Scripture  and  tradition, 
"whereas,"  he  writes,  "according  to  Christ's  institution,  the 
Scripture,  where  it  is  plain,  should  guide  the  church,  and  the 
church,  where  there  is  doubt  or  difficulty,  should  expound  the 
Scripture;  yet  so  as  neither  Scripture  should  be  forced,  nor 
the  church  so  bound  up  as  that  upon  just  and  further  evidence 
she  may  revise  that  which  hath  slipped  by  her."  ^ 

Laud's  one  demand  was  outward  uniformity.  In  theory  he 
recognized  that  this  was  only  a  secondary  matter,  but  he  in 
reality  thrust  it  into  the  foreground  as  the  one  essential  for 
England's  religious  life.  He  sees  in  the  separations  from  the 
church  and  the  restlessness  of  the  time  but  one  demand,  namely, 
decent  order  and  uniform  service.^  Hence  he  laid  the  emphasis 
just  upon  those  things  which  were  most  likely  to  inspire  hate 
in  the  Puritan  mind  and  awaken  distrust  in  the  minds  of  those 
who,  though  not  Puritan,  greatly  dreaded  the  political  power  of 
Rome.  "  Ceremonies,"  he  wrote,  "  are  the  hedge  that  fence  the 
substance  of  religion  from  all  indignities  which  profaneness  and 
sacrilege  too  commonly  put  upon  it.'" 

life  has  been  written  by  Peter  Heylen  under  the  title:  "Cyprianus  Anglicus:  or 
the  History  of  the  Life  and  Death  of  .  .  .  William  [Laud]  .  .  .  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  .  .  .  Also  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  .  .  .  England  .  .  .  ," 
London,  1668,  and  also  by  W.  H.  Hutton  ("William  Laud,"  in  "English  Leaders 
of  Religion"  series,  London,  Methuen,  1895),  by  Arthur  Christopher  Benson 
("William  Laud,  Sometime  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  a  Study,"  London,  1887 
and  1897),  and  by  Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner  in  the  "Dictionary  of  National 
Biography"  (edited  by  Leslie  Stephen  [continued  by  Sidney  Lee],  in  67  vols., 
London  and  New  York,  Macraillan,  1885-1903),  vol.  XXXH  (1892),  pp.  185- 
194.  Uncritical  invective  in  William  Prynnc's  "Canterburies  Doom;  or  the  First 
Part  of  a  Complete  History  of  the  Commitment,  Charge,  Tryall,  Condemnation, 
Execution  of  William  Laud,  late  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,"  London,  1646. 
The  materials  for  a  life  and  estimate  of  the  man  are  contained  in  his  works,  and 
his  "Defence"  and  "Diary"  are  candid  and  patently  sincere.  See  also  the 
standard  histories  of  England,  and  especially  Gardiner  (Samuel  Rawson), 
"History  of  England  from  James  1.  to  the  Outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,"  London, 
Longmans,  1863-1882,  in  10  vols. 

'  "Epistle  Ded.  Works,"  vol.  H,  p.  xvi. 

^  "Epistle  Ded.  Works,"  vol.  H,  p.  xvi. 

»  "Epistle  Ded.  Works,"  vol.  U,  p.  xvi. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   ANGLO-CATHOLICISM      423 

He  was  unquestionably  a  bad  adviser  for  both  James  and 
Charles,  and  they  found  in  him  an  able  defender  of  their  theories 
of  absolutism.  Laud  taught  the  doctrine  of  an  absolute  sub- 
ordination of  the  clergy  to  the  State/  and  that  non-resistance 
was  a  Christian  duty  even  in  the  case  of  bad  princes.  To  the 
newly  awakened  ethical  sense  of  England  he  seemed  morally 
utterly  callous,  and  he  had  no  real  perception  of  the  evils  of  his 
day. 

Of  course  his  point  of  view  brought  with  it  an  entirely  different 
emphasis.  The  intimate  friend  of  men  of  the  moral  stamp  of 
the  Buckinghams  and  Strafford  could  only  wink  at  their  conduct 
because  like  Rome  he  placed  heresy  before  all  other  sin,  and  saw 
in  faithful  subordination  to  the  outward  demands  of  church  far 
too  great  a  make-weight  against  serious  transgression  of  the 
Ten  Commandments.^  Laud  was  in  no  sense  in  touch  with  the 
real  feeling  of  the  great  middle-class  movement  in  England  and 
Scotland.  In  Scotland  he  said:  "For  the  present  troubles  in 
Scotland  novations  in  religion  are  so  far  from  being  the  true 
cause,  as  that  it  is  manifest  to  any  man  that  will  look  upon  it 
with  single  eye,  that  temporal  discontent  and  several  ambitions 
of  great  men  which  had  long  been  working  were  the  true  cause 
of  these  troubles."  ^  No  doubt  the  land  hunger  of  the  newly 
risen  nobility  had  much  to  do  with  Scotland's  unrest,  but  the 
awakened  religious  and  ethical  life  was  a  factor  for  which  Laud 
had  no  understanding. 

In  the  canons  (1635)  Laud  handed  over  supreme  power  to  the 
king  in  the  church,  and  the  ever-constant  dread  of  a  return  by 
the  king  to  Rome  made  such  a  power  fateful  in  the  last  degree.^ 
That  Laud  was  as  sincere  as  he  was  narrow  need  not  be  denied. 
In  his  pathetic  ** Defence"  and  ''Diary"  we  see  the  earnest, 
pious,  and  energetic  nature  of  the  man  at  its  best.  He  was  not 
learned  as  were  Whitgift  and  Hooker,  nor  was  he  a  man  of 

'  Conference  with  Fisher.     "Works,"  vol.  II,  p.  228. 
2  See  Conference  with  Fisher.    "Works,"  vol.  II,  p.  164. 
'  "History  of  Laud's  Troubles  and  Tryals,"  edition  1695,  p.  87. 
*  "Troubles  and  Tryals,"  edition  1695,  p.  100;   c/.  cap.  I,  i. 


424  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

supreme  force  like  Cahin  or  John  Knox,  and  he  was  least  of 
all  a  thinker;  but  he  sought  resolutely  to  translate  again  Anglo- 
Catholic  absolutism  into  political  terms.  He  was  firmly  per- 
suaded "  that  my  order  as  a  bishop  and  my  power  of  jurisdiction 
is  by  divine  apostolic  right,  and  unalterable  (for  aught  I  know) 
in  the  church  of  Christ.  But  all  the  power  I  or  any  other  bishop 
hath  to  exercise,  any  the  least  power  of  order  or  jurisdiction 
within  the  realm  of  England,  is  derived  wholly  from  the  crown, 
and  I  conceive  it  were  treasonable  to  derive  it  from  any  other 
power  foreign  or  domestic."  ^ 

Laud  mistook  uniformity  for  unity;  he  indeed  called  Aristotle 
"his  old  master,"^  but  he  had  not  learned  from  him  either 
scientific  method  or  political  good  sense.  That  Laud  should 
go  to  the  scaffold  in  his  seventy-second  year  on  charges  that 
were,  to  say  the  least,  not  proven,  is  another  blot  upon  the  page 
of  history.  But,  alas,  despotism  had  taught  Parliament  that 
the  surest  way  with  opposition  was  death,  and  Strafford  and 
Laud  were  both  skilled  and  courageous  opponents. 

Within  the  Anglo-Catholic  world  of  thought  systematic  ethics 
has  little  scope  for  development.  Mediasvalism  was  the  real 
ideal  and  inspiration,  although  the  primitive  church  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  model.  Lack  of  historical  sense  and  critical 
insight  has  crippled  the  undoubted  learning  and  devotion  of 
those  who  simply  desired  to  nationalize  the  Roman  hierarchy 
and  restore  the  Byzantianism  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 

V.      THE   ETHICS   OF   INDEPENDENCY 

Note  of  Introduction. — If  Anglo-Catholicism  was  born  of  the 
political  and  economic  situation,  no  less  is  it  true  that  Indepen- 
dency had  its  origin  in  the  demand  on  the  part  of  a  rising  class 
for  a  new  atmosphere  in  which  to  breathe.  Independency  fought 
for  the  things  it  needed  for  its  life  and  thus  demanded  toleration, 
not  on  the  basis  of  theory,  that  came  later,  but  on  the  ground  of 

'  "History  of  Troubles  and  Tryals,"  edition  1695,  P-  ^SS- 
'"History  of  Trouljlcs  and  Tryals,"  edition  1695,  p.  159. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  INDEPENDENCY  425 

vital  necessity.  Independency,  Puritanism,  and  Anglo-Cathol- 
icism are  sharply  divided  points  of  view,  but  intellectual  clear- 
sightedness and  self-consistency  are  not  common  gifts,  so  that 
as  a  matter  of  fact  the  lines  are  not  drawn  sharply  in  the  English 
or  American  history  of  Independency— perhaps  least  sharply  in 
the  American  historical  congregational  development  of  it/  In 
fact  it  is  quite  impossible  to  say  with  accuracy  how  the  theory 
of  Independency  grew  up.  That  Browne  had  much  to  do  with 
it  is  perfectly  true.  But  not  only  did  he  die  in  the  established 
church,  but  he  was  not  himself  clear  in  his  teachings.  And 
when  Independency  took  root  in  American  soil  Puritanism  and 
its  thinking  had  already  invaded  its  life,  and  to  this  day  Puritan- 
ism is  most  constantly  confounded  with  a  type  of  Independency 
as  abhorrent  to  many  of  the  leaders  of  Puritanism  as  was  Rome 
itself. 

Yet  the  ethical  outlook  was  in  this  period  largely  determined 
by  the  definition  of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State.  No 
one  thought  of  life  without  a  final  and  absolute  external  author- 
ity both  in  doctrine  and  in  morals.  No  one  questioned  seriously 
the  supremacy  of  the  State  in  temporal  things  or  the  supremacy 
of  the  church  in  spiritual  things.  But  what  was  the  church? 
Where  were  the  boundaries  between  secular  and  spiritual  con- 


1  The  literature  is  very  large,  and  although  the  bibliography  in  Dexter's 
(Henry  Martin)  "Congregationalism  of  the  Last  Three  Hundred  Years  as  Seen 
in  its  Literature,"  New  York,  1880,  is  now  far  from  complete,  it  is  a  most  valua- 
ble aid.  See  especially  Fletcher,  Joseph:  "The  History  of  the  Revival  and 
Progress  of  Independency  in  England  Since  the  Period  of  the  Reformation," 
4  vols.,  London,  1847,  etc.;  Hanbury,  Roger:  "Historical  Memorials  Relating 
to  the  Independents,"  3  vols.,  1839-1844;  Vaughan,  Robert:  "English  Non- 
conformity," London,  1862;  Skeats,  Herbert  S.:  "History  of  the  Free  Churches 
of  England  from  1688  to  1851,"  London,  1869;  Dexter,  Henry  Martin:  "Con- 
gregationalism of  the  Last  Three  Hundred  Years  as  Seen  in  its  Literature," 
New  York,  1880;  Price,  Thomas:  "History  of  Protestant  Nonconformity  in 
England,  from  the  Reformation  under  Henry  VIII,"  2  vols.,  London,  1836-1838; 
Wilson,  Walter:  "The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  Dissenting  Churches  .  .  . 
in  London,  Westminster,  and  Southwark,  Including  the  Lives  of  Their  Minis- 
ters, from  the  Rise  of  Nonconformity  to  the  Present  Time  .  .  .  ,"  4  vols., 
London,  1808-1814;  Waddington,  John:  "Survey  of  Congregational  History, 
1200-1567,"  London,  1866  and  1869. 


426  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

cerns  ?  Who  was  in  the  last  analysis  to  draw  the  lines  between 
these  provinces  ?  Rome  still  maintained  her  spiritual  supremacy 
even  over  the  State  by  demanding  the  right  to  define  the  duties 
of  the  State.  Anglo-Catholicism  resisted  that  claim,  but  gave 
in  practice  the  spiritual  supremacy  to  the  State  by  making  a 
national  church  with  the  secular  ruler  as  its  head,  "  as  far  as  the 
law  of  Christ  permitted,"  it  is  true,  but  with  no  organ  save  the 
State  to  decide  finally  what  was  "the  law  of  Christ."  Puritan- 
ism found  the  "law  of  Christ"  in  the  Bible  binding  both  Church 
and  State,  but  it  had  also  no  organ  for  finally  and  with  authority 
determining  just  what  the  Bible  meant.  Hence  as  Protestant- 
ism came  to  self-consciousness  there  were  inevitably  restless 
spirits  who  would  be  bound  by  neither  Church  nor  State,  as  they 
then  existed,  in  the  interpretation  of  what  all  men  nominally 
bowed  to  as  a  final  authority,  namely,  the  Bible. 

Independency  rose  thus  as  the  assertion  of  the  individual 
over  against  not  only  the  existing  group,  but  as  over  against  the 
past  history  of  the  group.  Nor  could  it  itself  be  really  self- 
consistent.  It  in  fact  appealed  quite  as  fundamentally  as  did 
Romanism  or  Anglo-Catholicism  to  tradition.  It  accepted  the 
Bible  as  the  "word  of  God  written"  on  what? — on  the  tradition 
of  the  church  which  fixed  the  canon,  so  far  as  it  ever  has  been 
fixed.  Its  real  appeal  was  to  subjective  religious  experience, 
but  it  neither  realized  this  nor  saw  the  full  significance  of  its 
revolt  from  the  ecclesiastical  tradition  and  the  intervention  of 
the  physical  power  of  the  State  in  spiritual  things. 

The  ethics  of  Independency  no  more  received  a  systematic 
treatment  than  did  the  ethics  of  Puritanism,  but  they  have  their 
own  special  color  and  in  the  writings  of  Browne  ^  may  be  said 

'  Browne,  Robert,  born  about  1550,  died  1633.  He  was  the  third  child  of 
Anthony  Browne,  and  of  good  family,  being  connected  with  Cecil,  Lord  Burgh- 
Icy,  who  took  deep  interest  in  him  as  a  kinsman.  He  was  educated  at  Corpus 
Christi  College,  Cambridge  (B.A.  in  1572).  In  1580  founded  an  independent 
congregation  at  Norwich  (but  soon  after  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds)  to  realize  the 
apostolic  church  along  the  lines  of  the  separatists  and  Lollards  of  previous 
generations.  But  in  the  autumn  of  1581  he  immigrated  (congregation  and  all) 
to  Middelburg,  in  Zeland  (Cartwright's  old  church),  to  gain  the  freedom  he 


THE   ETHICS   OF  INDEPENDENCY  427 

to  have  their  beginnings.  It  is  not  easy  to  hold  the  balance  in 
judging  of  the  life  and  ethical  teachings  of  a  man  so  strange 
and  in  some  ways  so  inconsistent.  It  seems  to  the  writer  extrava- 
gant to  say  with  T.  G.  Crippen,  in  his  interesting  introduction 
to  the  "Treatise  of  Reformation  Without  Tarrying  for  Any," 
that  Browne  formulated  the  principle  of  a  "  Free  church  in  a  free 
State."  After  reading  all  the  extant  writings  of  Browne  save 
one  to  which  the  writer  could  not  get  access,  no  such  formula 
seems  even  to  be  supposed  as  a  groundwork  of  the  thinking. 
In  the  very  treatise  itself  Browne  says,  after  alleging  that  the 
Pope  was  Antichrist  and  had  no  authority  over  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, that  her  power  was  civil,  "and  that  power  she  hath  as 
highest  under  God  within  her  dominions,  and  that  over  all 
persons  and  causes.  She  has  power  of  death  by  law,  and  none 
may  resist  her  or  the  magistrate  under  her  by  force  or  wicked 
speeches,  when  they  execute  the  laws." 

required.  At  the  close  of  1 583  he,  however,  returned,  and  although  Elias  Thacker 
and  John  Coppin  (or  Copping)  were  hanged  (1583)  for  simply  possessing  and 
distributing  his  writings  (Thomas  Gibson  imprisoned  for  the  crime  of  binding 
them! — for  contrary  view  see  "Dictionary  of  National  Biography,"  article 
"Browne"),  he  could  go  to  Scotland,  and  was  in  1584  in  Edinburgh,  and  only 
in  1586  was  he  finally  excommunicated  formally  by  Rowland,  the  Bishop  of 
Peterborough.  He  then  made  his  submission,  and  received  the  mastership  of  the 
Stamford  Grammar  School  (St.  Olaf's)  under  exceedingly  humiliating  condi- 
tions. After  five  years  became  rector  of  Achurche-cum-Thorpe  (in  Northamp- 
tonshire) for  more  than  forty  years.  Throughout  his  life  he  was  protected  by 
Lord  Burghley,  who  perhaps  thought  him  insane.  He  died  in  jail  at  Northamp- 
ton, after  having  been  arrested  for  assaulting  a  constable.  This  was  in  1633, 
or  soon  after.  He  was  strange  and  erratic  at  all  times,  and  disappointment, 
suffering,  and  unsuitable  intellectual  and  spiritual  surroundings  may  well  have 
unbalanced  an  undoubtedly  fine  mind.  A  bibliographical  list  of  his  works  is 
given  by  Crippen  (T.  G.)  in  his  edition  of  "A  Treatise  of  Reformation  Without 
Tarrying  for  Any,"  published  for  the  Congregational  Historical  Society,  1903. 
Besides  this  he  wrote  "A  Book  which  showeth  the  life  and  manner  of  all  true 
Christians,  and  how  unlike  they  are  unto  Turks  and  Papists  and  heathen  folke," 
printed  Middelburg,  1582;  "A  Treatise  upon  the  XXIH  of  Matthew";  also 
"A  True  and  Short  Declaration,"  and  "An  answer  to  Stephen  Bridewell,  his 
first  Book  against  the  Brownists."  For  further  details,  see  Dexter's  (Henry  M.) 
account  in  his  "Congregationalism  of  the  Last  Three  Hundred  Years,"  although 
the  present  writer  finds  much  to  dissent  from  in  the  account  and  estimate  of  the 
man. 


428  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

At  the  same  time  he  argues  that  the  spiritual  reformation  of 
the  church  must  be  the  work  of  the  preachers  who,  however, 
have  broken  their  spiritual  swords  and  now  call  upon  the  State 
to  reform  the  church.  The  pastor  should  have  oversight  of  the 
magistrate,  but  only  as  spiritual  guide,  and  though  he  has  power 
of  cutting  off,  it  should  only  be  with  a  spiritual  weapon.  At  the 
same  time  the  magistrate  is  really  supreme,  for  Browne  claims 
that  when  the  pastors  are  cold  the  magistrate  may  "remove  me 
from  church  and  withhold  me  from  preaching.  Indeed  the 
magistrate  may  force  him  (the  preacher),  but  it  is  his  shame  to 
tarry  till  he  be  forced.  Neither  durst  Moses  nor  any  of  the 
good  kings  of  Juda  force  the  people  by  law  or  by  power  to 
receive  the  church  government,  but  after  that  they  received  it, 
if  they  fell  away  and  sought  not  to  the  Lord,  they  might  be  put 
to  death."  The  church  is  to  be  pure  and  then  the  magistrates 
will  "abase  themselves  unto  God  before  the  face  of  the  church." 
But  given  what  Browne  would  call  a  pure  church,  and  there 
were  for  him  practically  no  limits  to  its  despotism.  This  pure 
church  he  defines  thus:  "The  church  planted  or  gathered,  is  a 
company  or  number  of  Christians  or  believers  which  by  a  will- 
ing covenant  made  with  their  God  are  under  the  government 
of  God  and  Christ,  and  keep  his  laws  in  one  holy  communion: 
because  Christ  hath  redeemed  them  unto  holiness  and  happiness 
forever,  from  which  they  were  fallen  by  the  sin  of  Adam."  * 

Cartwright  had  written  a  really  beautiful  and  broad-minded 
letter  to  Harrison  in  defence  of  a  Presbyterian  staying  in  the 
established  church,  and  to  this  Browne  rejoined.  There  he 
plainly  says  that  the  courts  of  the  land  are  to  be  praised  for 
passing  and  enforcing  laws  for  punishing  "Idolatries,  for- 
swearing, usurping  of  lordship,  rebellion,  murder,"  and  all 
"outward  gross  wickedness."  So  that  "the  laws  are  a  wall  to 
the  church  round  about"  and  "whereas  the  law  doth  bind  us 
to  come  to  church,  it  doth  well,  for  no  man  ought  to  refuse  the 
church  of  God,  yet  if  when  we  come  to  church  wc  Imd  there  an 
unlawful  minister,  and  a  wicked  confusion  of  all  sorts  of  people, 

*  "Book  Which  Showcth  the  Life  and  Manners  of  All  True  Christians." 


THE   ETHICS   OF  INDEPENDENCY  429 

the  fault  is  not  now  in  the  law,  but  in  the  bishops  which  place 
such  ministers." 

Browne's  objections,  therefore,  were  not  to  an  established 
church  but  to  the  established  church.  The  church  is  marked 
by  three  things:  "preaching  of  the  word,  ministration  of  the 
sacraments,  and  reformation  of  life,  which  is  the  chiefest  thing 
of  all  to  set  forth  Christ  and  his  kingdom." 

The  church  has  power  to  loose  and  bind,  and  must  keep  the 
table  of  the  Lord  pure  from  the  defilement  of  unworthy  mem- 
bers. "  And  if  one  man  could  make  an  assembly  a  true  church, 
he  has  power  to  bind  and  loose."  ^ 

Moreover,  in  Browne's  constant  appeal  to  the  Old  Testament 
theocracy  one  sees  that  he  had  no  hold  upon  the  modern  theory 
of  spiritual  independence  of  the  State.  The  sacraments  are  for 
him  the  continuance  of  the  sacrifices.  "For  if  it  be  true  that 
as  all  sacrifices  then  so  all  sacraments  now  are  rebellion  against 
the  Lord,  being  ministered  without  the  visible  church  of  God."  ^ 
Indeed  Browne  makes  much  of  the  "outward  discipline,"  and 
he  regarded  the  persecutions  of  Mary  as  a  judgment  upon  the 
half-hearted  reformers  of  the  preceding  reigns.  The  unfortu- 
nate priestly  story  of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram  ^  plays  its 
part  in  Browne,  and  he  has  his  share  of  priestly  blood-thirstiness. 
"Wherefore  I  would  say  there  were  holiness  in  the  dumb  min- 
istry, if  all  the  dumb  ministers  were  hanged  up  in  the  churches 
and  public  assemblies,  for  a  warning  and  terror  to  the  rest,  that 
they  are  ready  to  enter  such  a  function."  ^  He  disclaims  the 
error  of  the  Donatists,  who  wished  an  absolutely  sinless  church, 
but  "if  in  any  church  such  gross  sinner  be  incurable,  and  the 
church  hath  not  power  to  redress  them,  or  rebelliously  refuseth 
to  redress  them,  then  it  ceaseth  to  be  the  church  of  God,  and 
so  remaineth  till  it  repent  and  take  better  order."  The  sacra- 
ments are  disfigured  "when  dogs  and  swine  do  communicate 
therein,"  when  "papists  and  atheists,  drunkards,  May-game- 

*  p.  7  of  tract  against  Cartwright;   cf.  also  p.  15. 

^"Answer  to  Cartwright,"  p.  19;    cf.  p.  18. 

'  Num.  16  :  1-40.  *  "Answer  to  Cartwright,"  p.  23. 


430  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

sters,  and  such  like  are  presented  as  sweet  bread  at  the  table 
of  the  Lord."  ' 

The  interest  with  Browne  was  ethical  rather  than  theological. 
His  ideal  was  a  pure  church,  and  purity  involved,  of  course, 
pure  doctrine  and  sacraments,  but  mainly  pure  life.  This  pure 
life  was  based  upon  a  covenant  relationship  entered  into  with 
God  by  the  believer,  and  was  conditioned  upon  keeping  the 
commandments.  "The  second  point  of  discipline  is  that  the 
covenant  promises  and  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  the  sacraments 
of  his  kingdom,  being  established  among  the  worthy,  then  that 
they  keep  the  covenant  and  sacraments  unpolluted." 

This  covenant  conception  gives  to  both  the  theology  and 
ethics  of  Browne  a  hard  and  legal  character,  which  is  a  bond 
between  him  and  Puritanism;  and  like  the  Puritans  the  sacra- 
ments depend  upon  a  "lawful  ministry."  And  for  Browne 
the  lawfulness  of  a  minister  is  the  essence  of  a  ministry." 
After  discussing  at  some  length  the  decline  of  the  church,  he 
says:  "By  all  these  places  it  is  evident  that  though  preaching 
may  sometimes  be  without  the  present  act  of  ministering  the 
sacraments,  yet  the  sacraments  might  never  be  ministered  but 
of  preachers  and  with  preaching."  ^ 

Yet  the  strong  individualism  of  the  man  and  his  confidence 
in  the  individual's  judgment  makes  him  give  really  destructive 
powers  of  inquisition  to  every  church  member.  "The  individ- 
ual must  watch,  and  if  offence  arise  must  ask  the  church  to  join 
him  in  condemnation,  but  if  the  church  will  not  do  so,  then  he 
must  proceed  himself,"  and  he  thinks  that  "Christ  hath  given 
power  to  every  Christian  to  retain  the  sins  of  every  brother  whom 
he  knoweth  to  trespass  against  him,  and  not  to  forgive  him 
unless  he  repent." 

If  Browne  is  to  be  historically  classed,  his  independency  and 
ethical  outlook  is  rather  of  latter-day  Plymouth  brethren  than 
American  Congregationalism.  And  like  the  Plymouth  brethren 
he  was  very  impatient  with  a  good  deal  of  organized  churchly 
Christianity.     "For  the  sacraments,"  he  said,  "which  the  read- 

'  "Answer  to  Cartwright,"  p.  34.  ^"Answer  to  Cartwright,"  p.  54. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  INDEPENDENCY  431 

ing  ministry  do  give  us  are  neither  his  (sic)  sacraments,  neither 
the  Lord's,  as  we  proved  before,  but  are  polluted  pledges  of  a 
wicked  communion."  ' ' 

In  a  series  of  questions  and  answers,  Browne  gives  the  gist 
of  his  teaching  in  "  A  Book  which  showeth  the  Life  and  Manners 
of  All  True  Christians,  and  how  unlike  they  are  unto  Turks  and 
Papists  and  heathen  folke"  (printed  Middelburg,  1582).  He 
grounds  the  whole  Christian  life  upon  the  voluntary  covenant 
relationship  with  God.  And  we  should  lead  a  godly  life  "By 
knowing  God  and  the  duties  of  godliness,  and  by  keeping  those 
duties."  "  The  covenant  is  mutual.  God  on  one  side,  we  on 
the  other,  and  baptism  is  the  seal  of  the  covenant.^ 

"We  must  watch  one  another  and  try  out  all  wickedness. 
We  must  privately  and  openly  rebuke  the  private  and  open 
offenders.  We  must  also  separate  the  wilful  and  more  grievous 
offenders  and  withhold  ourselves  from  them,  and  gather  the 
righteous  together." 

The  sections  88  to  182  is  a  little  ethical  treatise  as  well  as  a 
little  treatise  on  polity.  In  it  Browne  claims  that  elders  should 
not  only  have  gifts,  but  also  "parentage  and  birth,"  for  in  a  note 
he  adds:  "Birth  and  parentage  is  a  gift  whereby  they  have 
greater  authority  as  by  natural  desert  of  kindred  and  blood  or 
of  begetting  and  bringing  up,  if  so  be  that  they  answer  in  worthi- 
ness otherwise."  *  In  point  of  fact  Browne  was  neither  a 
modern  democrat  nor  a  very  radical  independent.  The 
phrases  which  are  sometimes  quoted  to  show  his  modern  spirit, 
such  as  that  "for  the  civil  magistrate  there  must  be  an  agreement 
of  the  people  or  commonwealth,"  are  not  so  modern,  taken  in 
their  connection,  where  he  shows  that  the  consent  is  a  matter 
of  antiquity,  and  that  their  real  authority  comes  from  God, 
"they  are  received"  of  the  people  and  come  from  God  "by 
birth  and  succession."  ^ 

Yet  Browne  undoubtedly  exercised  a  large  influence.  He 
was   an   erratic,   seemingly   quarrelsome   man    whose    strong 

*  "Answer  to  Cartwright,"  p.  85.  ^  §  2.  '  §  36. 

*  This  is  not  the  only  passage  pointing  the  same  way.  *  §  117. 


J 


432  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

personality  made  him  an  intense  individualist.  He  was  probably 
often  temporarily  insane.  Not  simply  as  Dexter  suggests 
toward  the  close  of  his  carreer,  but  all  through  it,  with  the  pride 
and  egotism  that  often  marks  the  neurotic  patient.  But  he  was 
a  man  of  acute  mind.  His  ethics  are  in  the  foreground,  and 
consist  of  duties  faithfully  performed  in  a  covenant  relation  to 
a  somewhat  harsh  and  unforgiving  God.  Though  Independency 
repudiated  him,  it,  no  doubt,  learnt  much  from  him,  and  reveals 
in  its  history  some  of  both  his  virtues  and  his  blemishes.  From 
our  point  of  view,  however,  it  can  hardly  be  claimed  that  his 
extant  writings  would  do  much  to  spiritualize  and  deepen  the 
morality  of  Independency,  or  to  properly  separate  between 
ethical  autonomy  and  one-sided  individualism. 

To  be  a  "Brownist"  became  a  reproach.  At  the  same  time 
the  influence  of  Browne,  was  felt  for  long  in  the  various  sects  that 
now  began  to  arise.  The  spread  of  such  bodies  as  the  Baptists, 
Quakers,  and  groups  of  people  with  fantastic  names,  sometimes 
given  them  as  nicknames,  sometimes  taken  seriously  by  them- 
selves, mark  two  things:  first,  the  rise  of  individualism  due  to 
the  bpeaking  up  of  the  old  authoritative  group  centres;  and, 
secondly,  the  gradual  coming  to  self-consciousness  of  a  religious 
life  apart  from  the  masterful  leadership  of  a  hierarchy. 

These  independent  and  separatist  modes  of  thought  found, 
no  doubt,  much  in  the  Brownist  movement  that  was  fundament- 
ally sympathetic,  more  particularly  as  it  developed  its  life  and 
emphasized  the  more  constructive  ideas  flung  out  by  Browne, 
so  that  the  strange  and  erratic  leader  brought  forth  spiritual 
followers  who  did  not  know  how  far  they  had  departed  from  the 
real  teaching  of  the  man  who  gave  his  name  to  the  movement. 

Nor  is  it  possible  to  speak  of  any  ethical  system  as  common 
to  the  innumerable  sects  that  sprang  up  on  the  Continent  and 
especially  in  England,  as  a  result  of  the  breaking  down  of 
centralized  authority.*    The  religious  view  of  the  world  inherited 

'  A  most  fascinating  account  of  this  ecclesiastical  chaos  is  given  by  Mr.  Robert 
Barclay  in  his  large  volume,  "The  Inner  Life  of  the  Religious  Societies  of  the 
Commonwealth."     We  have  used  the  2d  edition,  1877. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  INDEPENDENCY  433 

from  the  mediaeval  church  was  now  supposed  to  be  held  upon 
the  authority  of  Scripture,  and  had  to  be  read  into  its  pages. 
Even  when  men  like  George  Fox  and  Robert  Barclay  denied 
the  primary  significance  of  Scripture  and  put  the  Living  Spirit 
in  its  place/  they  also  proceeded  to  give  back  much  the  same 
message  only  ennobled  by  a  little  greater  freedom,  although  also 
often  made  fantastic  by  the  intrusion  of  an  utterly  unhistorical 
and  uncritical  subjectivism. 

The  Anabaptist  movement  had  its  distinct  echoes  in  England. 
The  cry  for  toleration  and  freedom  in  causes  of  conscience, 
which,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  was  first  raised  by  Dr. 
Balthasar  Hubmaier,^  found  a  ready  response,  no  doubt,  in 
many  hearts  in  England.  But  the  first  expression  was  in  1614, 
by  Leonard  B usher,  in  a  letter  to  King  James,^  in  which  even 
higher  ground  is  taken  for  toleration  than  that  by  Balthasar, 
who  would  suffer  the  wheat  and  tares  to  grow  together  until  the 
harvest  because  the  Master  said  so,*  whereas  Busher  demanded 
it  on  the  ground  of  each  man's  duty  to  think  for  himself.  But 
on  the  whole  the  "Ranters,"  the  "Seekers,"  and  the  strange 
sects  that  sprang  up  were  as  narrow  and  as  intolerant  as  their 
persecutors.     To  this  Roger  Williams  ^  is  a  noble  exception,  and 

*  "An  Apology  for  the  True  Christian  Divinity,"  by  Robert  Barclay,  1675. 
We  have  used  the  nth  edition,  London,  1849.     Cf.  "Prop."  Ill,  1-3. 

^"Von  Ketzern  und  iren  verbrennern  vergleichung  der  gschufften  zesamen- 
zogen  durch  doctor  Balthaser  ein  fridbergen  pfarrern  zu  Waldschut  zu  gefallen 
bruder  Anthoniu  vicarin  zu  Costantz  den  ausserlesne  thorwachter  on  am  Pusanne. 
Die  warheit  ist  untodtlich.     Anno  M.  D.  24.  yar." 

'  "Religious  Peace  or  a  Plea  for  Liberty  of  Conscience,"  1614.  Reprinted  in 
1846  by  the  Hansard  KnoUys  Society,  together  with  other  tracts.  This  society 
has  also  reprinted  pleas  set  out  in  1615  and  1620  anonymously. 

*  "Der  acht  Artickel." 

*  Born  probably  in  London  (1604  ?).  B.A.  of  Pembroke  College,  Cambridge, 
1626.  Sailed  for  America  December  i,  1630,  and  visited  Salem,  Plymouth,  and 
Boston.  He  was  immersed  as  a  Baptist  but  soon  became  "a  seeker."  The 
literature  is  given  in  Samuel  L.  Caldwell's  admirable  edition  of  his  great 
work,  "The  BIoudyTenent  of  Persecution  for  Cause  of  Conscience"  (ist  ed., 
London,  1644),  and  his  answer  to  Cotton,  "The  Bloody  Tenent  yet  more 
Bloody  by  Mr.  Cotton's  Endeavor  to  wash  it  White"  (ist  ed.,  London,  1652). 
Publications  of  the  Narragansett  Club,  first  series,  vol.  Ill,  IV,  V,  and  VI. 
(Containing  also  his  letters  and  other  writings,  as  against  Fox.) 


434  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

his  pleas  are  based  on  the  sacred  character  of  man's  liberty  in 
the  Holy  Spirit/ 

The  chief  difficulty  was  that  all  parties  still  regarded  some 
absolute  external  authority  as  necessary.     Only  men  like  Roger 

'The  preface  to  Roger  Williams's  "Bloudy  Tenent"  is  as  follows: 

"  First,  That  the  blood  of  so  many  hundred  thousand  souls  of  Protestants  and 
Papists,  spilt  in  the  wars  of  present  and  former  ages  for  their  respective  con- 
sciences, is  not  required  nor  accepted  by  Jesus  Christ  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

"Secondly,  Pregnant  Scriptures  and  arguments  are  throughout  the  worke 
proposed  against  the  Doctrine  of  persecution  for  cause  of  conscience. 

"Thirdly,  Satisfactory  answers  are  given  to  Scriptures,  and  objections  pro- 
duced by  Mr.  Calvin,  Beza,  Mr.  Cotton,  and  the  ministers  of  the  New  England 
Churches  and  others  former  and  later,  tending  to  prove  the  Doctrine  of  persecu- 
tion for  cause  of  conscience. 

"Fourthly,  The  Doctrine  of  persecution  for  cause  of  conscience  is  proved 
guilty  of  all  the  blood  of  the  souls  crying  for  vengeance  under  the  Altar. 

"  Fifthly,  All  civil  States  with  their  officers  of  justice  in  their  respective  constitu- 
tions and  administrations  are  proved  essentially  civil,  and  therefore  not  Judges, 
Governors,  or  Defenders  of  the  Spiritual  or  Christian  State  and  Worship. 

"Sixthly,  It  is  the  will  and  command  of  God,  that,  since  the  coming  of  His 
Son  the  Lord  Jesus,  a  permission  of  the  most  paganish,  Jewish,  Turkish  or  Anti- 
christian  consciences  and  worships  be  granted  to  all  men  in  all  Nations  and 
Countries:  and  they  are  only  to  be  fought  against  with  that  sword  which  is  only 
(in  soul  matters)  able  to  conquer,  to  wit  the  sword  of  God's  Spirit,  the  Word  of 
God. 

"Seventhly,  The  State  of  the  land  of  Israel,  the  kings  and  people  thereof  in 
Peace  and  War  is  proved  figurative  and  ceremonial,  and  no  pattern  nor  precedent 
for  any  Kingdome  or  civil  State  in  the  world  to  follow. 

"Eighthly,  God  requireth  not  an  uniformity  of  religion  to  be  inacted  and 
inforced  in  any  civil  State;  which  inforced  uniformity  (sooner  or  later)  is  the 
greatest  occasion  of  civil  war,  ravishing  of  conscience,  persecution  of  Christ 
Jesus  in  his  servants,  and  of  the  hypocrisy  and  destruction  of  millions  of  souls. 

"Ninthly,  In  holding  an  inforced  uniformity  of  Religion  in  a  civil  State,  we 
must  necessarily  disclaim  our  desires  and  hopes  of  the  Jews'  conversion  to  Christ. 

"Tenthly,  An  inforced  uniformity  of  Religion  throughout  a  Nation  or  civil 
State,  confounds  the  Civil  and  Religious,  denies  the  principles  of  Christianity  and 
civility,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh. 

"Eleventhly,  The  permission  of  other  consciences  and  worships  than  a  State 
professeth,  only  can  (according  to  God)  procure  a  firm  and  lasting  peace  (good 
assurance  being  taken  according  to  the  wisdom  of  the  civil  State  for  uniformity 
of  civil  obedience  from  all  sorts). 

"Twelfihly,  Lastly,  true  civility  and  Christianity  may  both  flourish  in  a  State 
or  Kingdom,  notwithstanding  the  permission  of  divers  and  contrary  consciences, 
either  of  Jew  or  Gentile." 

Preface  to  the  reprint  from  the  Hanserd-Knollys  Society,  edition  of  1848. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  INDEPENDENCY  435 

Williams  and  George  Fox  had  confidence  in  the  subjective 
leading  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  interpretation  of  the  external 
authority,  and  had  learnt  that  violence  only  begot  violence. 
The  unhistoric  subjectivism  of  men  like  Fox  and  even  Barclay 
made  a  consistent  ethical  system  impossible,  and  splendid  as 
were  the  religious-ethical  results  of  the  Quaker  movement,  it  was 
always  hampered  by  an  almost  childish  literalism — like  saying 
"ye"  and  not  taking  off  the  hat  to  men — on  the  one  hand,  and 
an  unrestrained  subjectivism  on  the  other,  as  when  it  was 
"opened"  to  Fox  that  he  should  go  barefoot  in  Lichfield  and 
cry,  "Woe  to  bloody  Lichfield,"  because  forsooth  one  thousand 
martyrs  had  been  killed  there  by  Diocletian.^  This  lack  of  his- 
toric sense  and  feeling  for  the  continuity  of  history  and  tradition 
made  Quakers  bold  in  proposing  great  innovations.  They  op- 
posed war,  slavery,  persecution,  all  unloving  violence;  they  were 
foremost  in  the  reform  of  schools  and  prisons.  They  strove  for 
simple  worship  and  the  unworldly  life;  but  they  still  had  an 
absolute  authority  to  be  used  uncritically  and  unhistorically. 
They  still  placed  the  Old  Testament  on  the  same  ethical  level  in 
all  its  parts  with  the  New,  while  recognizing  an  equally  uncrit- 
ically accepted  "inner  voice,"  with  many  times  a  dash  of  very 
unethical  magic  in  its  utterances. 

On  the  whole,  the  ethics  of  an  intelligent  Independency  is 
best  formulated  by  John  Milton.^  He  stood  for  toleration  as 
between  the  Protestant  bodies  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture. 
Each  man  who  went  to  the  Bible  must  be  free  to  find  out  what 
was  there,  but  he  had  no  toleration  for  papists  or  atheists,  or 
any  who  did  not  acknowledge  the  Scriptures  as  the  one  sole 
source  of  authority.  In  fact  Milton  was  a  very  hard  and  very 
inconsistent  literalist.  On  the  one  hand  he  attacks  all  Sab- 
batarianism on  the  ground  that  the  Decalogue  is  not  binding, 

*  "Journal,"  3d  ed.,  1765,  pp.  48-49- 

"The  classic  life  by  Masson,  6  vols.,  1859-1880,  gives  all  the  details;  cf. 
also  Masson's  own  condensation,  in  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  article 
"Milton." 


436  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

and  on  the  other  pleads  the  second  commandment  as  excuse  for 
suppressing  the  "  idolatry  of  the  mass."  * 

In  fact  all  the  difficulties  which  a  half-way  Protestantism 
always  must  face  appear  in  Milton's  ethics.  Yet  his  "  Doctrina 
Christiana"  ^  is  the  most  able  and  complete  system  of  Indepen- 
dent ethics  which  we  possess.  It  is  divided  into  two  parts. 
With  the  first  part  we  are  not  mainly  concerned,^  and  our 
review  of  the  second  part  must  be  hurried.  The  attempt  is 
most  interesting.  The  ethics  are  summed  up  in  the  second 
book.^  The  true  service  of  God  is  especially  the  study  of  good 
works.  But  good  works  are  by  faith  and  not  of  the  Decalogue 
(p.  388).  They  are  wrought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  faith 
to  God's  glory  and  our  hope  of  salvation  and  the  edification  of 
our  neighbor  (p.  390).  The  primary  efficient  cause  of  good 
works  is  God;  the  secondary  are  ''habits  of  good."  ^  These 
virtues  are  general  or  special.    The  general  are  in  the  intellect 

'  The  quotations  are  from  Symmon's  edition  of  the  prose  work,  6  vols.,  1806. 
See  vol.  IV,  p.  265,  and  his  "Doctrina  Christ.,"  1825,  Cantab,  edition,  Hb.  II, 
cap.  VII,  pp.  446-454. 

'Published  posthumously,  Cantab.,  1825,  and  Bronswiga,  1827. 

'  Milton  thought  he  drew  his  system  wholly  from  the  Bible.  The  theologian 
who  reads  the  subjects  can  judge  whether  he  did  or  not.  He  deals  in  thirty-three 
chapters  with  the  doctrine  of  God;  the  divine  decree;  predestination;  the  Son 
of  God;  the  Holy  Spirit;  creation;  providence  of  God  and  his  general  govern- 
ment; the  special  ministration  of  angels;  the  government  of  men  before  the 
fall;  whence  the  Sabbath  and  marriage;  the  fall  and  sin;  the  punishment  of 
sin;  about  death  called  mortal;  the  restoration  and  redemption  of  Christ;  the 
mediatorial  office  in  its  threefold  character;  renewal  and  vocation;  regeneration; 
repentance  and  faith;  about  saving  faith;  renewal  in  Christ;  justification  and 
adoption;  the  mystical  or  invisible  church;  glorification,  and  assurance  of  faith 
and  perseverance;  the  free  covenant,  or  concerning  the  law  of  God;  the  Gospel 
and  Christian  liberty;  the  external  signs  of  the  free  covenant  (under  the  law 
circumcision  and  passover,  under  the  Gospel,  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper); 
the  visible  church;  the  sacred  Scriptures;  particular  churches;  ecclesiastical 
discipline;  the  perfect  glory  and  the  second  coming  of  Christ;  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead  and  the  conflagration  of  the  world. 

All  of  this  is  so  evidently  the  old  Aristotelian  scholasticism  in  framework  and 
organizing  interest  that  it  is  plain  Milton  was  really  only  deceiving  himself. 

*  Liber  II,  Cantab.,  edition  1825,  pp.  387-536. 

*  "Habitus  boni  qua:  virtutes  nominantur." 


THE   ETHICS   OF  INDEPENDENCY  437 

or  the  will.  The  intellectual  are  wisdom  and  prudence.  In 
the  will  are  sincerity,  promptness,  and  constancy. 

The  special  virtues  pertain  either  to  our  duty  (officium)  to 
God  or  man.  So  that  a  knowledge  of  God  as  one  versus  atheism 
or  polytheism  is  a  first  duty.  Then  come  love,  fidelity,  hope, 
gratitude,  fear,  humility,  patience,  obedience,  and  Milton 
describes  these  with  their  opposing  vices  in  Aristotelian  or  Stoic 
terms  and  Scripture  texts.  The  external  duties  are  the  cult 
and  prayer;  sacred  days  and  places,  which  last  two  he  rejects, 
are  dealt  with. 

Then  come  immediate  duties  to  our  neighbor,  with  a  good 
deal  of  repetition,  but  an  admirable  discussion  of  love  and 
justice.  There  are  indirect  duties  to  our  neighbor  as  to  our- 
selves. At  this  point  Milton  seems  confused,  and  indeed  the 
whole  last  part  is  condensed  and  unorganized,  and  closes  with 
duties  political  and  ecclesiastical.  Religion  is  to  be  defended 
but  not  enforced  by  the  magistrate.*  The  ecclesiastical  duties 
are  hurriedly  summed  up  in  closing. 

The  dependence  upon  Aristotle  and  Cicero  is  apparent 
throughout,  in  spite  of  the  elaborate  Scripture  quotation.  The 
Old  Testament  is  on  the  same  level  with  the  New  Testament. 
The  exegesis  is  painstaking  and  daring,  but  both  uncritical  and 
subjective.  And  what  is  remarkable  throughout  is  the  slavish 
acceptance  of  the  letter. 

Within  the  scholastic  Protestantism  of  churchly  thinking  there 
was  no  chance  for  any  real  unification  of  ethics.  The  acceptance 
of  a  whole  vast  range  of  literature  as  a  standard  gave  each  man 
his  chance  to  pick  out  what  suited  him,  and  the  denial  by  Protes- 
tantism of  a  living  absolute  authority  left  unhistorical  subjectiv- 
ism to  do  its  work.  That  in  the  confusion  and  in  part  as  a  result 
of  it  men  should  at  last  come  to  see  the  need  of  a  larger  Hberty 
was  inevitable.  Jeremy  Taylor's  "  Liberty  of  Prophesying"  was 
no  clearly  thought-out  platform  any  more  than  Milton's,'  but 

•  Lib.  II,  cap.  17,  p.  528. 

'  Both  men  get  credit  for  a  larger  measure  of  toleration  than  they  possessed. 
Neither  of  them,  for  instance,  would  have  wanted  the  mass  permitted  in  England. 


438  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

was  the  voicing  of  a  felt  need  of  a  larger  atmosphere.  The 
sense  that  all  external  authority  had  in  the  last  analysis,  whether 
men  believed  it  or  no,  to  submit  to  the  more  or  less  critically 
trained  reason  and  feeling  had  to  grow  up  outside  of  organized 
ecclesiastical  Protestantism. 


VI.      THE  ETHICS   OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM 

Outside  organized  ecclesiastical  Protestantism  there  arose  a 
mighty  force.  It  was  a  true  child  of  the  protest  against  usurped 
authority,  and  belongs  therefore  to  Protestantism.  It  was 
essentially  an  empiric  philosophy  with  an  ultimate  faith  in 
man's  capacity  for  co-operation  with  God.  It  must  be  included 
in  any  history  even  of  organized  Protestantism  because  the 
church  is  never  so  inclusive  in  Protestantism  as  in  Roman 
Catholicism.  There  is  a  Protestantism  of  the  stoutest  kind 
whose  home  is  in  none  of  the  churches,  but  whose  work  and 
development  have  deeply  affected  the  religious  thinking  of  all 
the  churches,  whether  they  realized  it  or  not.  Our  history 
seeks  indeed  to  follow  the  history  of  ethics  rather  within  the 
organized  church  and  to  deal  more  particularly  with  ethics  of 
the  church,  so  that  these  last  sections  upon  the  ethics  of  philo- 
sophical Protestantism  can  only  scan  the  field.  This  is  the  less 
to  be  regretted  because  a  large  literature  already  deals  with 
philosophical  ethics  with  a  minuteness  impossible  in  these 
pages.^ 

One  of  the  first  tasks  of  Protestantism  should  have  been  to 
free  thought  from  the  arrogant  claims  of  ecclesiasticism,"  but 

Even  Lccky  seems  to  exaggerate  their  breadth  at  this  p)oint.  C/.  "History  of 
.Rationalism,"  vol.  II,  79-80. 

'  An  admirable  sketch  of  English  ethics  is  given  by  Sidg^nck,  H.,  in  his  article 
in  the  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  and  published  in  enlarged  form  as  a  book, 
"Outlines  of  the  History  of  Ethics,"  3d  ed.,  1892. 

'  The  well-known  books  of  Draper  and  Andrew  D.  White  on  the  struggle  for 
a  real  scientific  freedom  against  the  ghosts  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny  that  even  now 
still  haunt  the  churches  to  their  great  hurt  should  be  read  and  gravely  pondered 
by  all  really  thoughtful  ecclesiastical  leaders.  Particularly  the  work  of  Andrew 
D.  White  deserves  more  especial  attention,  because  of  the  temperate,  reverent 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  439 

this  was  not  only  exceedingly  difficult  but  also  exceedingly 
delicate.  The  unity  of  life  is  such  that  no  one  phase  of  it  can 
be  touched  without  a  potential  alteration  all  along  the  line.  We 
may  hold  mutually  exclusive  positions  for  a  long  time  in  our 
minds  until  some  action  depends  upon  our  thought-process,  and 
then  at  once  the  contradiction  is  made  clear  and  one  or  other 
position  must  in  fact  be  surrendered. 

A  great  deal  of  Protestant  thinking  has  been  done  under  the 
shelter  of  forms  its  thinking  really  undermined.  Men  have 
bought  the  boon  of  inner  freedom  at  the  price  of  outward  con- 
formity in  all  ages.  In  Protestantism,  however,  the  conformity 
has  been,  perhaps,  generally  sincere  and  unaffected,  because 
Protestantism  unconsciously  but  no  less  really  moved  the 
emphasis  in  the  Christian  life  from  the  contemplative  and  the 
intellectual  to  the  active  and  voluntary  elements.  The  only 
possible  basis  for  ecclesiastical  unity  is  capacity  for  co-operation, 
and  this  capacity  is  conditioned  by  many  other  things  than 
intellectual  agreement. 

In  the  theory  of  Rome,  life  was  divided  into  a  religious  and  a 
secular  sphere.  The  doctrine  of  the  two  swords  expressed  this 
faith  on  the  political  field.  This  distinction  early  Protestantism 
sought  to  take  over  into  the  field  of  intellectual  inquiry.  It  was 
assumed  that  the  two  had  separate  instruments  but  that  the 
outcome  must  be  the  same.  The  faith  of  scholasticism  that  the 
closed  system  could  be  completely  rationalized  was  handed  over 
to  the  new  Protestantism,  but  the  contents  of  the  closed  system 
were  different  and  the  religious  authority  was,  in  fact,  far  less 
concrete  and  vital. 

In  England  the  political  situation  dominated  all  examination 
of  ethics,  and  when  philosophical  Protestantism  began  inde- 
pendent research  it  was  inspired  by  this  interest.  The  founder 
of  speculative   ethical   philosophy   upon   this  new   Protestant 

spirit  of  his  very  severe  criticism.  The  quarrel  between  "science"  and  "relig- 
ion" is  the  inevitable  readjustment  of  human  life  to  new  truth.  Neither 
"science"  nor  "religion"  can  be  more  than  a  tentative  formulation  of  human 
experience. 


440  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

English  soil  may  be,  without  much  fear  of  dispute,  named  as 
Francis  Bacon.^ 

The  excessive  praise  of  Bacon  has  led  to  criticism  and  perhaps 
underestimates  of  his  work  and  teaching.  It  can  hardly  be 
denied  that  his  method  has  not  taught  the  modern  scientific 
laboratory  how  to  work.^  It  was  Newton  and  Galileo  and 
Harvey  who  really  did  that.  At  the  same  time  Bacon  saw 
clearly  that  real  knowledge  of  experience  and  its  laws  was  what 
men  needed  to  gain  power.    He  made  familiar  the  thought  of 

*  Francis  Bacon,  Baron  Verulam  and  Viscount  of  St.  Albans,  was  born  in 
York  House,  in  London,  January  22,  1561.  He  spent  his  life  in  official  service 
under  Elizabeth  and  James,  eventually  having  to  retire  with  diminished  fortune 
on  charges  of  corruption  from  which  he  could  not  clear  himself.  He  died  April 
9,  1626.  The  best  edition  of  his  works  is  that  collected  and  edited  by  James 
Spedding,  Robert  Leslie  Ellis,  and  Douglas  Denon  Heath,  London,  Longmans, 
in  14  vols.,  1857-1874  (the  same  in  Boston  in  15  vols,  1861;  other  editions  are  in 
progress);  Methuen's  "Standard  Library,"  "The  English  Works  of  Francis 
Bacon,  Lord  Verulam,"  vol.  I,  "Essays  and  Counsels,"  and  "The  New  Atlantis," 
appeared  March,  1906  (no  more  appeared  up  to  December,  1908);  "World's 
Classic"  series,  Clarendon  Press;   and  "New  Universal  Library." 

For  most  extensive  literature,  see  the  last  edition  of  Ueberweg-Heinze,  "  Grund- 
riss  der  Geschichte  der  Philosophie,"  Berlin,  vol.  IH,  §  X.  Besides  the  well- 
known  and  oft-edited  "Essays"  (with  annotations  by  Richard  Whately,  6th 
ed.,  revised  and  enlarged,  London,  1864,  is  especially  well  known),  the  works 
that  have  most  interest  for  the  student  of  ethics  are  "  Colors  of  Good  and  Evil," 
"The  New  Atlantis"  (in  H.  Morley's  "Universal  Library,"  vol.  XXHI,  1885, 
edited  by  A.  T.  Flux,  Macmillan,  1899;  by  D.  W.  Bevan,  "Royal  Standard" 
series,  London,  1899;  and  in  Methuen's  series  mentioned  above,  1905),  and  the 
ethical  sections  of  the  "Advancement  of  Learning"  (Cassell's  "National  Libra- 
ry," vol.  CLXXHI,  1889,  books  I  and  H,  edited  with  notes  by  F.  G.  Selby,  in 
2  vols.,  Macmillan,  1892  and  1895),  which  corresponds  to  the  enlarged  treatment 
in  his  "De  Dignitate  et  Augmentis  Scientiarum"  (London,  1623,  Argentorati, 
1635,  Amsterdam,  1662,  etc.).  The  literature  about  Bacon  is  enormous,  and  a 
classified  bibliography  is  much  needed.  The  "  Catalogue  of  the  British  Museum" 
(its  section  upon  Bacon  can  be  had  separately)  would  furnish  the  basis.  Espe- 
cially important  is  Kuno  Fischer's  final  (loth)  volume  in  his  "Geschichte  der 
neueren  Philosophie,"  3d  ed.,  Heidelberg,  1904  ("Bacon  und  seine  Schule"; 
cf.  also  his  "F.  Bacon.  Die  Realphilosophic  und  ihr  Zcitalter,"  Leipsic,  1856; 
in  English:  "Francis  Bacon.  Realistic  Philosophy  and  Its  Age,"  translated  by 
J.  Oxenford,  London,  1857). 

*  On  this  {)oint  sec  the  controversy  raised  by  Liebig  in  Germany  and  the  replies 
of  Sigwart  and  Kuno  Fischer.  The  literature  is  given  by  Kuno  Fischer,  p.  335 
of  the  tenth  volume  of  his  "History  of  Modern  Philosophy,"  31!  ed.,  1904. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  441 

experiment  as  the  only  pathway  to  firm  assurance.  He  raised 
most  important  issues  and  asked  most  searching  questions  to 
which  the  modern  world  is  still  trying  to  give  an  answer.  He 
also  created  an  atmosphere  within  which  a  wholesome  sceptical 
empiricism  could  do  its  work  while  retaining  a  working  faith  in 
an  intelligible  world,  and  a  good  God;  and  in  most  unexpected 
places,  and  in  many  ways  his  influence  may  be  traced,  not  only 
on  the  philosophical,  but  also  upon  the  scientific  and  practical 
thinking  of  the  world. 

His  first  and  quite  impossible  demand  was  that  ''divine"  and 
"human"  knowledge  should  be  kept  apart.  He  thought  their 
intermingling  "  hath  filled  the  one  full  of  heresies,  and  the  other 
full  of  speculative  fictions  and  vanities."  ^ 

Thus  Bacon  sought  to  free  science  from  troublesome  intru- 
sions of  a  dogmatic  character,  because  he  did  not  realize  how 
sweeping  the  research  of  science  was  bound  to  be.  All  knowl- 
edge was  to  be  limited  by  "religion"  and  was  "to  be  referred  to 
use  and  action."  ^  Bacon  thought  this  pragmatic  test  would 
keep  the  two  spheres  of  inquiry  separate.  And  that  the  Script- 
ures could  be  cheerfully  trusted  "  to  reveal  the  will  of  God,  and 
then  the  creatures  expressing  his  power,"  and  that  in  these  two 
books  we  might  be  "secured  from  all  error."  ^  So  in  the  "New 
Atlantis"  a  divine  miracle  brings  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
to  the  people  of  the  happy  land  Bensalem. 

Not,  indeed,  that  Bacon  would  have  had  religion  thus  relegated 
to  a  sphere  by  itself  to  get  rid  of  it,  as  Hobbes  wished  to  do. 
Bacon  deprecated  all  merely  intellectual  curiosity  that  had  no 
element  of  service  of  mankind  in  it,  or  that  did  not  aim  at  the 
making  "goodness"  real  in  life.*  Knowledge  was  ever  to  be 
tested  by  its  utility  for  mankind,  and  its  function  is  to  restore 
man's  lost  sovereignty  over  the  world. 

'  "Of  the  Interpretation  of  Nature,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  219,  of  Spedding's  edition, 
London,  1857-1874,  to  which  all  references  are  made  unless  otherwise  noted. 

^  "Interpretation  of  Nature,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  218;   "Works." 

'  "Interpretation  of  Nature,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  221. 

*  "Interpretation  of  Nature,"  vol.  Ill,  p,  222;  cf.  p.  218  and  "De  Augmentis," 
book  VII,  chap.  I. 


442  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

While  this  is  true,  however,  Bacon's  interest  was  primarily 
neither  religious  nor  ethical,  but  intellectual.  He  was  himself 
not  a  man  of  high  moral  tone.  No  apologist  has  been  able  to 
do  more  than  teach  us  to  condone  and  excuse  his  ingratitude  to 
Essex  and  his  faithlessness  in  office.  His  own  letters  abundantly 
reveal  the  self-seeking,  ambitious,  marvellously  gifted  and  self- 
conscious  time-server.  Hence  not  only  have  we  no  systematic 
ethics,  but  in  all  Bacon's  elaborate  plans  for  advancing  men's 
knowledge,  religious  and  ethical  advance  have  but  little  part. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  systematic  treatment  of  ethics  is 
in  the  "Advancement  of  Learning"  *  and  in  the  corresponding 
Latin  sections  of  his  treatise  "De  Dignitate  et  Augmentis 
Scientiarum."  ^  He  deals  there  with  the  "good,"  but  not  in  the 
"heathen"  sense  of  the  highest  good,  but  on  the  lower  plane 
of  man's  utility.  He  divides  ethics  into  two  parts:  "The 
Exemplar  or  Platform  of  Good,  and  the  Regiment  or  Culture 
of  the  Mind;  the  one  describing  the  nature  of  the  good,  the  other 
prescribing  rules  how  to  subdue,  apply,  and  accommodate  the 
will  of  man  thereunto."  ^  He  thinks  the  ancients  and  the 
church  divines  have  handled,  under  the  head  of  the  Nature  of 
Good,  Positive  and  Simple,  and  under  Virtue  and  Duty,  the 
content  of  ethics  well,  but  that  the  examination  concerning  the 
roots  of  good  and  evil  has  been  neglected,  and  that  they  ought 
to  have  more  "consulted  with  nature"  and  been  less  "prolix 
and  profound."  He  thinks  there  is  in  everything  a  double 
nature  of  good,  according  as  the  purpose  is  within  the  object 
or  is  referred  to  the  object's  relation  to  the  larger  whole.  The 
larger  whole  is  the  nobler  purpose,  which  decides  for  Bacon  the 
controversy  between  the  advantages  of  the  vita  activa  and  the 
vita  content plativa,  and  against  Aristotle  he  contends  that  the 
active  life  is  the  higher  one.  Only  "God  and  the  angels"  have 
a  right  to  be  lookers  on.     And  Bacon  says  that  only  the  real 

'  "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  419-444. 

'  Book  VII,  chaps.  1-3;  cf.  book  V,  chap,  i,  and  book  VI,  chap.  3;  "Works," 
vols.  IV  and  V. 

*  "Advancement  of  Learning,"  book  II;    "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  419. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  443 

services  the  monastery  rendered  and  not  the  contemplative  life 
commended  it  to  the  church.^  On  this  principle  are  to  be  decided 
all  the  ethical  issues  between  Zeno  and  Socrates  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  Cyrenaics  and  Epicureans  on  the  other.  The  larger 
social  good  and  not  individual  happiness  is  the  moral  end. 
Hence  the  moral  man  is  not  frightened  from  his  social  service  by 
indignity  and  perturbations. 

The  private  or  particular  good  falls  into  two  divisions  of  good, 
active  and  passive.  Every  creature  is  animated  by  the  desire 
of  self-preservation  and  of  "dilating"  or  multipiying  itself. 
And  here  again  the  active  good  is  the  higher.  Passive  good 
is  conservative  and  perfective;  of  these,  however,  to  perfect 
while  conserving  is  the  nobler  ambition. 

The  real  ethics  of  Bacon  rest  upon  "  the  good  of  man  which 
respecteth  and  beholdeth  society,  which  we  may  term  duty," 
and  a  man  cannot  understand  "  virtue  without  some  relation  to 
society,  nor  duty  without  an  inward  disposition."  Duty  may 
be  either  the  common  duty  of  every  man,  as  a  man  or  a  member 
of  the  State,  and  the  particular  duty  of  every  man  in  his  profes- 
sion, vocation,  or  place.  This  last  division,  Bacon  says,  can 
only  be  dealt  with  in  special  and  particular  treatment  by  experts, 
and  the  failings  and  temptations  should,  he  thinks,  be  treated 
less  cynically  and  more  seriously. 

Ethics  should  also  deal  with  the  culture  of  the  mind,  which 
never  works  independently  of  feelings  and  will.  Man  must 
prepare  himself  for  the  moral  decisions  and  the  moral  strains  of 
the  active  social  life.  Bacon,  however,  does  not  really  get  rid 
of  authority  in  ethics  by  his  complete  separation  of  religion  as  a 
matter  of  revelation  from  the  science  of  conduct  based  upon 
experience.  He  denies  that  theology  can  be  founded  upon  the 
light  of  nature.^  In  point  of  fact  Bacon's  social  state  was  a 
monarchy  of  the  type  of  Henry  VIII  or  Elizabeth,  in  which  the 
will  of  the  king  was  practically  supreme.     He  claimed  that  he 

*  "Advancement  of  Learning,"  book  II;  "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  422,  and  other 
passages. 

"  "  Advancement  of  Learning,"  book  II;  "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  478. 


444  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

had  separated  the  science  of  "civic  knowledge"  from  ethics,* 
but  in  reahty  his  treatments  overlap  as  they  were  bound  to  do. 
Of  the  content  of  his  ethical  teaching  it  is  difficult  to  speak, 
because  it  is  so  various  in  character.  Much  is  taken  from 
Seneca  and  Cicero,  who  seem  to  have  profoundly  influenced  him. 
From  time  to  time  a  lofty  inwardness  marks  his  thinking,  but 
he  often  falls  to  a  much  lower  level  of  merely  shrewd  worldly 
wisdom.  In  his  "  Meditationes  Sacrae"  he  emphasizes  the  fact 
that  "if  evil  overtake  your  enemy  from  elsewhere,  and  you  in 
the  inmost  recesses  of  your  heart  are  grieved  and  distressed,  and 
feel  no  touch  of  joy,  as  thinking  that  the  day  of  your  revenge 
and  redress  has  come;  this  I  account  to  be  the  summit  and 
exaltation  of  charity."  He  shakes  himself  loose  from  the  preva- 
lent theological  disparagement  of  humanity,  and  claims  that 
"  the  inclination  of  goodness  is  imprinted  deeply  in  the  nature 
of  man;  insomuch  that  if  it  issue  not  toward  men,  it  will  take 
unto  other  living  creatures."  ^  Man  is  on  one  side  akin  to  the 
beasts  and  on  the  other  related  to  God,  and  to  deny  God  is  to 
wrong  man.  In  such  an  essay  as  that  on  superstition  one  may 
see  the  spirit  which  later  issued  in  English  empiricism  in  both 
ethics  and  religion.  But  nowhere  does  Bacon  follow  up  his 
clews.  He  was,  indeed,  himself  a  fine  example  of  the  failure  of 
speculation  apart  from  experiment  and  facts,  as  the  mere  collec- 
tion of  facts  is  barren  without  speculative  hypothesis  of  which 
facts  must  be  the  tests. 

In  spite  of  the  lofty  inwardness,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and 
the  social  character  of  his  fundamental  ethics,  the  general  im- 
pression is  rather  that  of  the  noble  paganism  of  the  Roman 
Stoics  and  Cynics  than  of  the  sweet  gentleness  and  yet  stern 
severity  of  New  Testament  ethics.  Bacon  did  litde  to  develop 
his  system,  but  it  is  at  least  doubtful  whether  had  he  done  so 

'  "Ilia  duas  habct  partes,  easque  notissimas  ct  consensu  receptas;  Logicam 
et  Elhiram:  nisi  quod  Doctrinam  Civilem,  quae  vulgo  ut  pars  ethical  collocatur, 
jam  ante  emancipaverimus,"  "Do  Augmentis,"  liber  V,  cap.  I;  "Works,"  vol. 
I,  p.  614. 

»  Essay  XIII;   see  also  Essay  XVI. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  445 

we  should  have  had  any  marked  advance  in  a  truly  Christian 
morality. 

Another  English  thinker  is  dominated  from  the  beginning  of 
his  thought  by  the  political  situation  and  by  the  peculiar  intel- 
lectual position  the  transformation  of  English  life  created. 
Thomas  Hobbes  ^  was,  however,  quite  far  removed  from  Bacon, 
though  influenced,  of  course,  by  him  in  a  measure  not  now  easy 
to  determine. 

It  is  hard  to  read  the  brilliant  and  clever  work  of  Hobbes  with- 
out a  sense  that  cynicism  and  an  overweening  self-estimate  to  a 
very  great  degree  lowers  all  his  work,  and  gives  it,  even  though 
the  work  of  genius,  a  certain  unreality  and  artificial  character. 
He  was  so  sure  of  his  ground  that  he  was  careless  about  making 
sure  of  his  facts;  and  his  wonderful  command  of  language  made 
him,  at  times,  the  victim  of  his  own  cleverness.  His  work  is  a 
curious  admixture  of  the  old  and  the  new  in  thought,  and 
represents  a  more  or  less  serious  attempt  to  retain  the  old  under 
new  forms  of  expression. 

For  the  actual  ethics  of  the  New  Testament  he  had  no  com- 
prehension, and  the  wonder  is  rather  that  he  was  listened  to  at 
all  than  that  he  was  violently  attacked. 

Yet  Hobbes  has  had  great  influence  both  direct  and  indirect, 
and  there  are  so  many  points  of  contact  between  his  thinking 
and  later  types  of  English  empiricism  that  even  Christian 
ethics  must  take  account  of  him. 

Like  Bacon,  Hobbes  wished  absolutely  to  separate  religion 

'  Hobbes,  Thomas  (April  5,  1588-December  4,  1679),  student  at  Magdalen 
Hall,  Oxford,  1603,  B.A.  in  1608  (Feburary  5).  His  works  are  collected  in 
eleven  volumes  of  English  and  five  of  Latin  writings  by  Sir  William  Molesworth 
(1839-1845).  Those  of  special  ethical  interest  are  "Human  Nature,  or  the 
Fundamental  Elements  of  Policy"  (1650),  and  "De  Corpore  Politico,  or  the 
Elements  of  Law,  Moral  and  Politic  "  (1650,  republished  in  1889  by  Dr.  Ferdinand 
Tonnies).  Hisown  translation  of  his  "De  Cive"  (Paris,  1642;  Amsterdam,  1647, 
as  "Elementa  Philosophise  de  Cive"),  under  the  title  "Philosophical  Rudiments 
Concerning  Government  and  Society"  (165 1),  and  then  especially  his  "Levia- 
than, or  the  Matter,  Form  and  Power  of  a  Commonwealth,  Ecclesiastical  and 
Civil"  (1651,  edited  by  A.  R.  Waller,  Cambridge,  1904).  An  elaboration  of  his 
doctrine  of  the  will  appears  in  his  debate  with  Bramhall  (vol.  V  of  his  "English 
Works"). 


446  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

from  philosophy.  God  was  no  object  of  speculative  thought, 
and  religion  as  an  outward  exercise  was  a  State  matter.  Any  one 
who  was  a  loyal  citizen  accepted  what  the  State  established  and 
that  became  his  (outward)  religion;  to  attempt  any  additions 
or  alterations  was  superstition.  Of  course  Hobbes  thus  really 
sheltered  all  kinds  of  private  scepticisms  under  the  guise  of 
conformity.  For  Hobbes's  own  philosophy  is  quite  destructive 
of  the  forty-nine  articles. 

His  metaphysics  and  epistemology  are  secondary  to  his  ethics 
and  politics.  His  metaphysics  is  a  mechanical  realism,  in  the 
sense  that  all  real  substance  has  body  and  all  knowledge  is  of 
effects  produced  by  one  body  on  another.  Our  knowledge  is, 
however,  of  the  effect  upon  us,  thus  giving  a  subjective  character 
to  all  ultimate  knowledge.  Words  are  mere  signs  of  arbitrary 
character  for  holding  together  things  with  no  necessary  or  inher- 
ent common  character  (nominalist). 

He  came  under  the  influence  of  Bacon,  but  his  interest  in 
mathematics  and  his  conception  of  the  subjective  reconstruction 
of  experience  separates  him  from  the  stiff  phenomenalism  of 
of  the  "Novum  Organum."  There  is  therefore  an  element 
again  of  rationalism  in  Hobbes. 

His  ethics  come  together  with  his  politics,  and  represent  an 
attempt  to  rationalize  Byzantianism.  Ethics  and  government 
have  grown  out  of  the  demand  for  the  peace  and  safety  of  the 
individual.  Unlike  bees  and  ants,  the  natural  state  of  man, 
who  is  selfish  and  pleasure-loving,  is  war.  The  only  way,  how- 
ever, to  escape  the  horrors  of  war  is  the  voluntary  subjection  of  all 
to  a  chosen  instrument  of  government  (hint  of  social  contract- 
theory  of  Rousseau).  There  is  no  good  or  evil  in  itself,  but 
what  now  the  central  authority  declares  to  be  for  the  good  of  all 
is  good  and  what  is  bad  is  evil.  The  whole  basis,  therefore,  of 
good  or  evil  is  the  determination  of  the  central  power.  This 
power  may  be  an  assembly,  but  is  better  a  king.  Once  chosen, 
this  central  power  can  only  function  if  made  absolute.  If 
not  made  absolute  we  will  quarrel  as  we  did  as  barbarians. 
This  doctrine   falls   in  with   the  absolutism  of  the   religious 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  447 

party  (Hooper,  etc.).  Men  are  absolutely  determined  by  their 
sense  of  pain  and  pleasure,  and  when  these  things  are  in  the 
future  they  represent  desire  and  aversion.  The  State  seeks  by 
playing  on  desire  and  aversion,  by  rewards  and  punishments, 
to  maintain  the  social  bond,  so  that  the  higher  values  of  life  may 
be  conserved  for  the  individual. 

This  determinism  was  attacked  by  the  religious  world,  but  is  in 
point  of  fact  the  kind  of  teaching  made  popular  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Religion  serves  the  State's  purpose  by  heightening 
the  sense  of  rewards  and  punishment,  and  so  the  State  is  really 
put  by  Hobbes  in  the  place  of  God.  There  is  no  good  in  itself, 
but  what  maintains  peace  comes  to  be  called  good,  and  the 
really  good  man  is  the  good  citizen  (hint  of  Bentham).  All 
knowledge  must  have  practical  end,  but  especially  ethics  has  as 
its  end  simply  the  experience  of  how  we  may  best  live  together. 
The  central  State  is  therefore  the  necessary  outcome  of  experi- 
ence.    And  reason  can  show  that  it  always  must  be  the  outcome. 

Just  as  nominalism  really  was  digging  its  own  grave  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  so  Hobbes's  "Leviathan"  was  actually  the  reduc- 
tion of  Toryism  to  an  absurdity.  Under  the  cloak  of  an  intense 
mediaeval  Byzantianism  the  reader  sees,  however,  a  really 
modern  view  of  the  world  skilfully  hiding  itself.  There  is  a 
half-concealed  empiricism  and  a  private  rationalism  which 
remind  us  of  the  political  apologies  of  a  Cicero. 

More  than  to  either  Bacon  or  Hobbes,  English  ethics  owes  its 
character  to  the  work  of  John  Locke,^  whose  contributions  to 
the  progress  of  human  thought  are  hardly  sufficiently  recognized. 
To  him  we  owe  the  revolution  in  education  commonly  accredited 
to  Rousseau,  and  his  defence  of  representative  government  has 
cogency  yet.^ 

'  Locke,  John,  born  in  August,  1632,  and  died  October,  1704.  He  studied 
at  Oxford,  and  afterward  came  deeply  under  the  influence  of  Descartes.  He 
shared  the  fortunes  of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  and  so  lived  with  him  for  lengthened 
periods  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  until  the  accession  of  William  of  Orange 
(1688).  He  was  the  apostle  of  constitutional  liberalism.  In  1690  appeared  his 
great  essay,  "Concerning  Human  Understanding." 

^  Cf.  Windelband,  "Geschichte  der  Neueren  Philosophic,"  vol.  I,  pp.  273-274, 
4th  ed.,  1907. 


448  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

His  ethics  are  not  worked  out  in  any  systematic  way,  yet  he 
laid  the  foundation  for  modern  ethical  empiricism,  although  he 
himself  never  developed  his  theory  even  as  far  as  did  Hume. 
Yet  his  negative  work  is  all  important.^  He  in  these  chapters 
opened  the  way  for  the  scepticism,  so-called,  of  Hume. 

Locke,  in  accordance  with  his  fundamental  postulate,  denied 
that  there  were  any  innate  practical  ideas.  All  our  knowledge 
comes  from  sensation  and  reflection.  More  particularly  is  this 
true  in  morals.  That  there  are  no  innate  moral  ideas  is  proved 
by  the  actual  practice  of  men  and  by  the  different  courses  of 
conduct  which  they  defend.  "Virtue  is  generally  approved, 
not  because  innate,  but  because  profitable."  ^ 

"The  true  ground  of  morality,  which  can  only  be  in  the  will 
and  law  of  a  God,  who  sees  men  in  the  dark,  has  in  his  hands 
rewards  and  punishments,  and  power  enough  to  call  to  account 
the  proudest  offender.  For  God  having,  by  an  inseparable 
connection,  joined  virtue  and  public  happiness  together,  and 
made  the  practice  thereof  necessary  to  the  preservation  of  society, 
and  visibly  beneficial  to  all  with  whom  the  virtuous  man  has  to 
do;  it  is  no  wonder  that  every  one  should  not  only  allow,  but 
recommend  and  magnify,  those  rules  to  others,  from  whose 
observance  of  them  he  is  sure  to  reap  advantage  himself."  ' 
And  the  very  fact  that  men  cry  up  what  they  do  not  themselves 
practice  shows  "  that  they  very  little  consider  the  Law-giver  that 
prescribed  these  rules,  nor  the  hell  he  has  ordained  for  the 
punishment  of  those  that  transgress  them."  * 

"  Conscience  is  nothing  else  but  our  own  opinion  or  judgment 
of  the  moral  rectitude  or  pravity  of  our  own  actions,^  and  so 
some  follow  what  others  avoid. 

Thus  Locke  regards  a  revealed  law  as  a  necessity,  and  thinks 
that  "Moral  laws  are  sent  as  a  curb  and  a  restraint  to  these 
exorbitant  desires,  which  they  cannot  be  but  by  rewards  and 

'  Book  I,  chaps.  3  and  4  of  the  "Essay."     Sec  vol.  I  of  the  edition  of  181 2,  pp. 

'  Chap.  3,  §  vi.  •  Book  I,  chap.  3,  §  vi. 

*  Ibid.  •  Book  I,  chap.  3,  §  viii. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  449 

punishments  that  will  overbalance  the  satisfaction  any  one  shall 
propose  to  himself  in  the  breach  of  the  law,"  and  "there  is  a 
great  difference  between  an  innate  law  and  a  law  of  nature," 
for  "we  may  know  the  law  of  nature  by  the  light  of  nature."  * 

In  the  fifteenth  section  he  gives  a  most  complete  and  damaging 
criticism  of  Lord  Herbert's  doctrine  of  innate  principles,  as  he 
set  them  forth  in  his  chapter  on  "  De  Veritate."  ^ 

Locke  shows  very  easily  that  these  things,  however  true,  are 
not  innate,  and  that  many  things  seem  to  us  innate  which  exam- 
ination proves  to  be  only  impressions  produced  in  various  ways. 
"  For  such  who  are  careful  (as  they  call  it)  to  principle  children 
well  (and  few  there  be  who  have  not  a  set  of  those  principles  for 
them  which  they  believe  in),  instil  into  the  unwary  and  as  yet 
unprejudiced,  understanding  (for  white  paper  receives  any 
characters)  these  doctrines  they  would  have  them  retain  and 
profess."  ' 

It  was  Locke  also  who  set  English  ethics  distinctly  on  the 
ground  of  a  common  social  advantage.  Bacon  had  already 
drawn  the  distinction  between  the  good  of  the  individual  and  the 
good  of  the  community,  but  Locke  developed  the  conception 
of  an  ethical  political  commonwealth,  with  the  majority  ruling. 
In  his  treatise  on  "Toleration"*  Locke  defines  a  common- 
wealth as  "  a  society  of  men  constituted  only  for  the  procuring, 
the  preserving,  and  the  advancing  their  own  civil  interests,"  and 
these  civil  interests  are  "Life,  liberty,  health,  and  indolency  of 
body,"  ^  which  is  the  forerunner  of  the  more  modern  "Life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  as  well  as  the  caring  for 

'  Book  I,  chap.  3,  §  xiii. 

^  These  "notes"  of  Lord  Herbert's  have  played  quite  a  part  in  English  and 
Scotch  thinking.  He  defines  them  as  "Prioritas,  Independentia,  Universalitas 
Certitudo,  Necessitas,  i.  e.,  faciunt  ad  hominis  conservationem,"  and  then  gives 
the  five  points  of  Deism,  i.  e.,  "  (i)  Esse  aliquod  supremum  numen;  (2)  Numen 
illud  coli  debere;  (3)  Virtutem  cum  pietate  conjunctam  optimam  esse  rationem 
cultusdivini;  (4)  Resipiscendum  esse  b.  peccatis;  (5)  Dari  praemium  vel  poenam 
post  hanc  vitam  transactam."     Cf.  "De  Veritate,"  3d  ed.,  1656,  p.  79. 

*  "Essay,"  book  I,  chap.  3,  §  xxii. 

*  The  letters  on  "Toleration"  are  in  vol.  VI,  of  the  edition  of  1812. 

*  "A  Letter  Concerning  Toleration,"  vol.  VI,  p.  10,  of  edition  of  1812. 


4SO  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

those  property  interests  which  commercial  and  feudal  England 
has  always  valued  so  highly. 

The  ethics  of  Locke  reflect  also  the  extreme  individualism  that 
has  always  marked  English  thought.  Beyond  the  protecting 
life  and  property  the  State  has  but  little  function,  and  the 
church  should  be  a  voluntary  society  within  the  State,  for  "the 
care  of  a  man's  soul  belongs  unto  himself  and  is  to  be  left  unto 
himself."  ' 

Like  Hobbes,  he  thought  "  the  pravity  of  mankind  being  such 
that  they  had  rather  injuriously  prey  upon  the  fruits  of  other 
men's  labors  than  take  pains  to  provide  for  themselves,"  govern- 
ment becomes  a  necessity.  Locke,  however,  has  limits  for  his 
toleration.  Men  are  not  to  be  tolerated  "  who  deny  the  being  of 
God,"  but  it  is  because  such  an  one  cannot  be  "bound  by  oath," 
and  thus  the  foundation  of  society  is  shaken.^ 

The  thorough-going  empiricism  of  Locke  leads  him  to  turn 
to  historical  experience  for  the  data  of  ethical  postulates,  and 
so  he  rendered  an  untold  service  in  making  ethics  an  historical 
as  well  as  a  systematic  study.  On  this  account  he  regarded 
ethics  as  a  science  in  which  demonstration  was  as  possible  as  in 
mathematics.^ 

Thus  Locke  furnished  the  basis  for  a  thorough-going  rational- 
ism in  ethics,  and  more  than  any  one  else  did  he  prepare  the  way 
for  the  inevitable  separation  in  Protestant  thought  between 
authoritative  theology  and  empiric  ethics.  And  even  while 
proclaiming  the  traditional  basis  in  a  "revealed  religion"  he  was 
actually  on  the  side  of  a  pronounced  historic  empiricism.  Thus 
he  differed  distinctly  from  the  men  whom  he  greatly  influenced, 
and  who  are  generally  but  somewhat  loosely  called  the  English 
deists. 

It  is  hard  to  find  more  than  a  general  agreement  amidst  men  as 
different  as  Clarke  is  from  Lord  Shaftesbury  or  Wollaston  from 
Collins.     But  for  all  that  there  is  a  spirit  that  unites  the  English 

'  "Letter  on  Toleration,"  vol.  VI,  of  edition  of  1812. 
-  "  Letter  on  Toleration,"  vol.  VI,  edition  of  18 12. 
"  "Essay,"  book  I,  chap.  3,  §  xiii. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  451 

deists.^  They  all  reacted  in  various  ways  against  the  interpre- 
tation of  Bacon's  empiricism,  made  fashionable  by  Hobbes. 
Already  the  Cambridge  Platonists  sought  an  "immutable 
morality,"  and  in  his  preface  to  Ralph  Cudworth's  posthumous 
work  on  ethics  the  Bishop  of  Durham  singles  out  Hobbes  as  the 
one  against  whom  this  whole  reaction  was  aimed.^  It  was 
clearly  recognized  that  with  the  breaking  up  of  a  central  eccle- 
siastical authority  upon  which  to  build  a  religious  and  moral 
structure  another  basis  had  to  be  found  for  these  values. 

The  so-called  Cambridge  Platonists,  among  whom  Cudworth 
and  More  ^  stand  out  as  representatives,  seek  in  the  permanent 
objective  reality  of  ideas  given  in  "reason"  a  basis  for  an  im- 
mutable morality.  In  them,  as  in  the  whole  deist  movement 
of  a  later  day,  a  source  of  endless  confusion  is  the  failure  to  ask 
themselves  what  was  meant  by  "reason"  or  to  hold  fast  to  any 
clear  theory  of  knowledge.  With  the  Cambridge  Platonists,  as 
with  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury*  there  was  a  natural  religion 

*  Besides  the  works  of  the  men  themselves,  see:  Leland,  John:  "A  View  of  the 
Principal  Deistical  Writers,"  2  vols,  4th  ed.,  1764;  also  Longmans,  1807; 
Lechler,  Gotthard  Victor:  "Geschichte  des  englischen  Deismus,"  Stuttgart  and 
Tubingen,  1841;  Stephen,  Leslie:  "  History  of  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,"  2  vols.,  London,  1876;  TuUoch,  John:  "Rational  Theology  and 
Christian  Philosophy  in  England  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,"  2  vols.,  Edin- 
burgh, London,  and  New  York,  1872. 

2  Cudworth,  Ralph,  1617-1688.  This  treatise  is  published  in  the  third  volume 
of  the  edition  of  1845  of  Cudworth's  "True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe," 
and  the  preface  by  the  Bishop  of  Durham  is  on  p.  519. 

^  More,  Henry  (1614-1687).  A  profuse  writer  whose  work,  "Enchiridion 
Ethicum  praecipua  Moralis  Philosophic  Rudimenta  complectens  ..."  (Lon- 
don, 1667,  1668,  1669,  1679,  1695,  nova  editio,  Amsterdam,  171 1,  4th  London 
edition),  is  the  one  of  interest  to  the  student  of  ethics.  Cf.  Tulloch's  (John) 
"Rational  Theology  and  Christian  Philosophy  in  England  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century,"  2  vols.,  Edinburgh,  London,  and  New  York,  1872,  vol.  II,  chap.  5, 
pp.  303-409.  The  second  volume  is  given  up  to  the  so-called  Cambridge 
Platonists,  of  whom  More  was  a  leader. 

*  Edward,  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  born  March  3,  1583  (1582-3),  died 
August  20,  1648,  his  autobiography  edited  and  completed  by  Solomon  Lazarus 
Lee,  London,  1886.  He  was  a  statesman  and  courtier.  His  main  work  for  the 
student  of  ethics  is  "De  Veritate  prout  distinguitur  h.  Revelatione,  a  Verisimili,  h. 
Possibili  et  a  Falso,"  Paris,  1624, 1633,  1639,  London  (ist  London  edition),  1645, 
1656,  1659.    A  French  translation,  Paris,  1636.    See  also  the  tract,  "  De  Religione 


452  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

and  a  moral  content  which  was  really  "given"  in  human  life. 
The  main  question  was  how  was  it  given? 

To  this  question  the  general  answer  was  based  upon  the  as- 
sumption that  there  was  a  content  of  morals  accepted  as  true, 
and  as  all  of  them  were  steeped  in  pagan  culture  this  content  is 
largely  the  later  Roman  Stoicism  with  Platonic  elements. 

Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury  was  not  a  man  of  very  high  moral 
attainments  in  some  ways.  He  was  vain  and  pushing,  with  an 
overweening  love  for  playing  the  part  of  court  gallant.  But 
he  clearly  saw  that  amidst  the  confusions  of  the  Reformation 
some  other  basis  for  morals  and  religion  must  be  found  than  the 
divided  authorities  of  organized  ecclesiasticisms. 

The  subsequent  deist  movement  accepted  almost  as  their 
platform  Lord  Herbert's  definition  of  religion,*  and  sought  to 
build  up  a  universal  religion  which  should  contain  the  essentials 
of  all.  In  this  universal  religion  morals  and  conduct  were  to  be 
the  best  service  rendered  to  God.^  We  therefore  should  natu- 
rally expect  a  distinct  contribution  in  ethics  from  the  deist  move- 
ment. But  though  they  do  devote  a  great  deal  of  time  to  ethical 
discussion,  two  circumstances  render  their  work  on  this  field 
relatively  unfruitful.  First,  they  failed  to  properly  examine  the 
epistemological  and  psychological  postulates  with  which  all 
ethics  must  begin.  Secondly,  they  failed  to  really  appreciate 
the  positive  contribution  the  empiricism  of  Bacon  and  Hobbes 
was  capable  of  making.  They,  in  fact,  only  recognized  the 
negative  side  of  this  movement  in  English  thought. 

Laici,"  in  "De  causis  errorum:  una  cum  tractatu  De  religione  laici,  et  appendice 
ad  sacerdotes,"  3  parts,  London,  1645,  and  "De  Religione  Gentilium,  errorum- 
que  apud  eos  causis,"  Amsterdam,  1663,  2d  ed.,  Amsterdam,  1700;  English 
translation,  "The  antient  religion  of  the  gentiles  and  causes  of  their  errors  con- 
sidered .  .  .  ,"  translated  by  W.  Lewis,  London,  1705.  An  exceedingly  appre- 
ciative monograph  is  by  Rdmusat  (Charles  Francois  Marie  de),  "Lord  Herbert 
de  Cherbury  sa  Vie  et  ses  Qiluvres,  ou  les  Origines  de  la  Philosophie  du  sens 
commun  et  de  Theologie  naturelle  en  Anglcterre,"  Paris,  1874. 

'See  p.  449  for  Locke's  critique  of  it.  Cf.,  also,  "Autobiography,"  Lee's 
edition,  pp.  60-62. 

'So  Shaftesbury,  "Characteristicks,"  vol.  II,  book  I,  i  :  i;  WoUaston,  "The 
Religion  of  Nature,"  sec.  I,  p.  8,  7th  ed. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  453 

Shujtesbury  *  has  an  interesting  attempt  to  find  in  harmony 
and  adjustment  a  rational  basis  for  ethics.  He  sees  that  "  Man- 
kind (is)  alarmed  by  the  freedom  of  some  late  pens,"^  and  attrib- 
butes  it  to  the  general  collapse  of  authority.  He  then  seeks  the 
nature  of  virtue  as  consisting  "in  a  certain  just  disposition,  or 
proportionate  affection  of  a  rational  creature  toward  the  moral 
objects  of  right  and  wrong."  '  But  important  as  was  his 
theistic  argument,  the  ethics  seems  to  have  had  no  such  influence 
as  was  exercised  by  Wollaslon,*  He  has  an  interesting  discus- 
sion of  moral  good  as  essentially  a  correspondence  with  the  facts 
of  the  universe.^  Truth  is  the  good  because  it  corresponds  to 
God's  nature,®  and  all  human  acts  are  statements  affirming  or 
denying  in  various  degrees  God's  eternal  truth.'  "  Every  intelli- 
gent, active,  and  free  being  should  so  behave  himself  as  by  no 
act  to  contradict  truth,  or  that  he  should  so  treat  everything  as 
being  what  it  is."  *  But  Wollaston  leaves  an  unresolved  anti- 
nomy between  the  "ought"  and  happiness.  He  says  plainly 
that  "  to  make  itself  happy  is  a  duty  which  every  being,  in  pro- 
portion to  its  capacity,  owes  to  itself,  and  which  every  intelligent 
being  may  be  supposed  to  aim  at  in  general,"  °  but  as  to  a 
correspondence  between  duty  (truth)  and  happiness  he  can  only 
say:  "Now  present  pleasure  is  for  the  present  indeed  agreeable, 
but  if  it  be  not  true  and  he  who  enjoys  it  must  pay  more  for  it 
than  it  is  worth,  it  cannot  be  for  his  good  or  good  for  him.  This, 
therefore,  cannot  be  happiness."  ^°  And  he  has  a  robust  faith 
that  the  practice  of  truth  cannot  make  any  being  ultimately 

'  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  third  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  (1671-1713).  "Character- 
isticks  of  Men,  Manners,  Opinions,  Times,"  3  vols.,  171 1,  1714,  1723,  1732; 
6th  ed.,  1 737-1 738  (of  edition  1870,  edited  by  Rev.  W.  M.  Hatch,  only  one 
volume  appeared).  The  student  of  ethics  should  turn  to  vol.  II,  treatise  IV, 
"An  Inquiry  Concerning  Virtue  or  Merit." 

*  " Characteristicks,"  vol.  II,  book  I,  i  :  i. 
'  "Characteristicks,"  vol.  II,  book  I,  3  :  i. 

*  Wollaston,  William,  born  March  26,  1660  (1659-60),  died  October  20,  1724. 
"The  Religion  of  Nature  Delineated,"  privately  printed  in  1722;   7th  ed.,  1746. 

'  Sec.  I,  4  :  I  (p.  19  of  7th  ed.). 

'  Sec.  I,  4  :  3.  '  Sec.  I,  2  :  5.  *  Sec.  I,  11. 

*  Sec.  II,  9.  '"  Sec.  II,  7,  and  sec.  II,  11. 


454  HISTORY   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

unhappy,  but  his  own  doctrine  of  probabilism,  "  where  certainty 
is  not  to  be  had,"  '  reveals  the  fact  that  the  correspondence 
between  truth  and  happiness  is  not  so  easy  to  prove  as  his 
theory  demands. 

The  deists  were  active-minded  men,  and  faced  real  questions, 
but  in  the  advancement  of  ethics  their  work  was  often  more 
fruitful  of  doubt  than  productive  of  certainty. 

Some  did  good  critical  work  in  showing  as  did  Blount  -  the 
untenable  character  of  much  prevalent  scholastic  apologetic,  but 
Blount  had  nothing  to  put  in  its  place,  and  he  did  his  work 
lightly  and  offensively.  And  so  far  as  this  work  was  positive  it 
did  little  more  than  reinstate  an  eclectic  pagan  morality  as  the 
substance  of  both  religion  and  ethics.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  the 
ethics  of  Tindal  ^  the  primary  postulate  is  that  "natural  religion" 
is  perfect,  and  that  in  point  of  fact  as  "the  ])crfection  of  any 
nature,  whether  human,  angelical,  or  divine,  consists  in  being 
governed  by  the  law  of  its  nature,"  ^  it  was  open  to  the  pagan 
world  to  live  on  the  highest  plane  of  morality.  There  is  no 
room  for  historical  development  in  Tindal's  scheme,  and  the 
scheme  itself  is  Stoic  intellectualism  in  search  of  personal  hap- 
piness. The  way  he  uses  history  is  to  try  to  strip  off  from  it  the 
mistakes  and  errors  of  the  past,  in  perfect  confidence  that  the 
whole  truth  has  always  been  present.  God  is  unchangeable, 
man's  nature  remains  the  same,  hence  religion  and  morals  must 
always  have  the  same  character  and  content.  Christianity 
brought,  according  to  Tindal,  and  with  him  the  deists  generally, 
no  new  morality,  but  a  message  of  repentance  from  sin  and 
of  freedom  from  superstition.  Christianity  is  thus  a  higher 
phase  of  natural  religion.  It  is  this  negative  work  alone  that 
has  had  such  great  and  sweeping  influence.     Deism  began  the 

•  Sec.  Ill,  16. 

'  Blount,  Charles,  1654-1693.     Collected  works  in  1695. 

'  Tindal,  Matthew,  born  1653,  died  August  16,  1733.  Fellow  of  Oxford.  He 
went  from  the  Anglican  church  over  to  Romanism  and  then  back  again.  His 
last  and  best-known  work  is  "Christianity  as  Old  as  Creation,  or  the  Gospel;  a 
Republication  of  the  Religion  of  Nature."     London,  1730,  1731;  4th  ed.  in  1733. 

*  "Christianity  as  Old  as  Creation,"  p.  14,  2d  ed. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  455 

critical  examination  of  the  accepted  content  of  Christianity  and 
its  morahty,  but  it  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  pushed  its  exam- 
ination into  the  fundamental  postulates  with  the  thoroughness 
of  Locke  or  Hume,  nor  yet  to  have  really  given  any  valuable 
reconstruction  of  ethics  as  a  system  of  conduct.  And  in  all  of 
them  there  is  a  curious  mingling  of  formalism  and  freedom,  of 
dogmatism  and  rationalism.  Herbert  of  Cherbury  prayed  for 
a  sign  from  heaven  as  to  whether  he  should  publish  his  book 
"De  Veritate,"  and  a  voice  or  sound  answered  him  out  of  a 
clear  sky.*  And  Tindal  is  very  insistent  upon  retaining  the 
word  Christian  for  a  system  which  he  shows  long  preceded 
Christ. 

Such  an  examination  as  Toland  gave  to  the  canon,  to  show 
that  it  could  not  be  made  the  sole  foundation  for  morals,  was 
too  superficial  to  do  more  than  raise  serious  questions,  and 
Samuel  Clarke  and  afterward  Dr.  Lardner,  had  the  best  of  the 
argument  even  where,  as  critical  opinion  now  knows,  they  were 
wrong. 

The  extremely  modern  note  that  rings  throughout  the  Eng- 
lish deists  is  rather  suggestive  of  the  coming  freedom  than  an 
actual  herald  of  it.  And  although  it  is  not  fair  to  undervalue 
many  of  their  most  useful  protests,  as  that  of  Shaftesbury 
against  what  we  would  now  call,  with  George  Eliot,  "other- 
worldliness,"  ^  yet  even  these  protests  were  mingled  with  the 
acceptance  of  so  much  inconsistent  matter  that  they  gave  undue 
advantage  to  their  critics.  Shaftesbury,  for  instance,  bases  the 
acceptance  of  the  Christian  religion  upon  the  enactment  of  the 
State  exactly  in  the  spirit  of  Hobbes,  and  while  he  himself 
professes  his  acceptance  of  the  "holy  mysteries  of  our  religion 
even  in  the  minutest  particulars,  notwithstanding  their  amazing 

*  "Autobiography,"  Lee's  edition,  p.  249. 

=  "Where  infinite  rewards  are  thus  enforced  {i.  e.,  by  fear  of  hell  and  hope  of 
heaven)  and  the  imagination  strongly  turned  toward  them,  the  other  common 
and  natural  motives  to  goodness  are  apt  to  be  neglected  and  lose  much  by  dis- 
use. ...  On  this  account  all  other  affections  to  our  friends,  relations,  or  man- 
kind are  often  lightly  regarded,  as  being  worldly,  and  of  little  moment  in  respect 
of  the  interests  of  our  souls."    "  Characteristicks,"  vol.  II,  p.  68  of  the  5th  ed. 


4S6  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

depth,"  '  the  modern  student  cannot  but  feel  that  ecclesiastical 
intolerance  was  reaping  its  just  reward  of  contemptuous  out- 
ward conformity  as  the  demoralizing  price  paid  for  an  inner 
freedom  of  spirit.^ 

At  the  same  time  there  was  a  churchly  reaction  on  the  basis 
of  the  practical  acceptance,  however,  of  rationalism  against  the 
empiricism  of  Bacon  and  Hobbes.  Cumberland,^  the  Bishop  of 
Peterborough,  boldly  challenged  Hobbes's  theory  of  universal 
war  as  the  natural  state  of  mankind,  and  self-interest  as  the  law 
of  human  nature.*  Rejecting  the  easy-going  intuitional  method 
of  the  Platonists,  who  solve  the  whole  difficulty  at  once  by  sup- 
posing that  there  are  innate  ideas,'  Cumberland  prefers  the 
rationalism  of  Descartes,  by  whom  he  is  deeply  influenced/ 
He  seeks  universal  propositions  from  which  all  else  can  be 
deduced.  This  universal  principle  is  benevolence,  and  in 
seeking  the  welfare  of  the  greater  whole  the  individual  finds, 
or  may  find,  his  own  individual  happiness.'  Amidst  much  loose 
and  pedantic  reasoning  Cumberland  searches  out  some  of  the 

'  "  Characteristicks,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  315-316. 

^  No  history  of  English  thought  would  be  complete  without  a  review  of  such 
men  as  Chillingworth,  Jeremy  Taylor,  and  Bishop  Tillotson,  with  an  estimate 
of  their  relationship  to  the  rationalistic  movement.  But  their  contribution  to 
ethics  within  Christianity  as  an  organized  system  of  thought  is  simply  nothing. 
So  completely  had  doctrinal  and  metaphysical  questions  overshadowed  thought 
that  even  the  sermons  of  the  period  neglect  ethics  in  exact  proportion  as  they  are 
"orthodox." 

^  Cumberland,  Richard,  Lord  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  born  July  15,  1631  (or 
1632,  according  to  Willis),  died  October  9,  17 18.  "De  legibus  naturae  dis- 
quisitio  philosophica  in  qua  earum  forma,  summa  capita,  ordo,  promulgatio  et 
obligatio  h  rerum  natura  investigantur;  quinetiam  elementa  philosophia: 
Hobbianae,  cum  moralis  tum  civilis,  considerantur  et  refutantur."  London,  1672: 
Dublin  reprint,  1720.  Two  English  translations:  "A  treatise  of  the  Laws  of 
Nature.  Made  English  from  the  Latin  by  John  Maxwell  .  .  .  ,"  London,  1727; 
"A  philosophical  Enquiry  into  the  laws  of  Nature  .  .  .  translated  into  English 
.  .  .  with  notes  and  an  appendix  by  .  .  .  John  Towers,"  Dublin,  1750. 

*  "The  moral  writer  may  very  justly  say  that  he  has  faithfully  discharged  the 
oflTice  of  moralist  if  in  the  beginning  of  his  book,  if  in  settling  his  principles,  he 
briefly  tells  you  that  all  possible  cases  which  can  happen  are  comprehended  under 
the  most  general,  the  most  diffusive  benevolence."  Part  I,  i  :  9,  English  trans- 
lation of  Towers,  p.  26.  '  "Prolegomena,"  sec.  V. 

•  Part  I,  I  :  9.  ''  Part  I,  i  :  14,  and  I,  i  :  16. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  457 

weakest  points  in  Hobbes's  ethics/  and  he  anticipates  the  later 
utilitarians  in  their  analysis  of  the  character  and  origin  of 
moral  good.  This  moral  good  may  be  discerned  by  right 
reason,^  and  happiness  is  the  reward  attached  by  the  will  of 
God  to  the  conduct  of  the  individual  in  seeking  the  general 
good.'  The  work  of  Cumberland  has  been  somewhat  neglected 
and  the  confusions  of  his  style  do  not  make  him  easy  reading.* 

Substantially  upon  the  same  ground,  and  also  influenced 
by  Descartes  is  Samuel  Clarke/  who  bases  morality  upon  the 
general  fitness  of  things,  and  like  Cumberland  and  Descartes, 
he  confuses  himself  with  false  analogies  between  the  moral 
sphere  and  conceptual  mathematics.*  His  interests  were  meta- 
physical rather  than  ethical,  and  nowhere  does  he  really  system- 
atize his  ethics. 

In  fact  the  ecclesiastical  reaction  against  the  philosophic 
currents  spent  itself  rather  in  dogmatic  and  apologetic  work 
than  in  ethical  defence.  At  the  same  time  the  issue  was  not 
wholly  neglected.  One  of  the  acutest  minds  in  English  history, 
the  famous  author  of  the  "Analogy,"  Bishop  Butler,''  began  a 
correspondence  while  he  was  yet  a  quite  unknown  young  man 
with  Clarke,  in  which,  though  he  professed  himself  convinced, 
he  raised  the  objections  which  seem  now  to  the  general  mod- 
ern mind  overwhelming  against  Clarke's  general  ontology.  He 
makes  the  remarkable  criticism  that  "space  and  duration  are 

»  As  in  I,  I  :  28;  III,  6:2. 

=»  I,  2,  §§  I  to  XXX  (whole  chapter). 

'  II,  5  :  1-58  (whole  chapter). 

*  The  author  depended  on  Tower's  translation,  but  since  then  has  found  the 
Dublin  reprint  of  the  Latin  version  much  clearer,  and  the  student  is  recom- 
mended especially  to  caput  IX  of  the  original  Latin  for  the  best  summary  of  his 
teaching. 

^Clarke,  Dr.  Samuel,  1675-1729.  Into  the  metaphysics  we  cannot  go.  In 
spite  of  his  denial  his  whole  reasoning  is  the  most  dogmatic  a  prioriism. 

*  Cf.,  for  instance,  preface  to  his  "Discourse  Concerning  the  Unchangeable 
Obligations  of  Natural  Religion,"  8th  ed.,  1732,  pp.  133-146. 

^  Butler,  Joseph,  Bishop  of  Durham,  1692-175 2.  His  ethics  are  contained 
in  his  famous  sermons,  often  reprinted,  and  in  an  "Ethical  Dissertation."  The 
latest  edition  of  his  works  is  by  Bernard,  in  two  volumes,  1900.  There  are  many 
editions. 


4S8  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

very  abstruse  in  their  natures,  and,  I  think,  cannot  properly 
be  called  things,  but  are  considered  rather  as  affections  which 
belong,  and  in  the  order  of  our  thoughts  are  antecedently  neces- 
sary to  the  existence  of  all  things."  ^  This  re-examination  of  the 
psychological  basis  of  knowledge  was  the  crying  need  of  ethical 
reflection,  and  Butler's  whole  attitude  was  deeply  psychological. 

He  himself  entered,  unfortunately,  upon  no  re-examination  of 
Locke,  or  we  might  have  had  an  English  Kant,  but  he  contented 
himself  with  seeking  in  the  facts  of  life  such  analogies  as  would 
justify  the  reasonable  man  in  holding  on  to  the  Christian  faith. 

So  also  in  his  ethics  he  substantially  accepts  the  premises  of 
Locke,  and  anticipates  Hume  in  his  doctrine  of  good  and  evil 
rising  out  of  pain-pleasure  sensations,  and  so  resolving  morality 
ultimately  into  utility  along  the  lines  of  Cumberland. 

Man,  Butler  shows,  is  to  be  thought  of  as  in  a  system  "the 
whole  nature  of  man,  and  all  the  variety  of  internal  principles 
which  belong  to  it."  ^  And  man  is  found  in  two  relations— to 
himself;  "the  nature  of  man  as  respecting  self,  and  tending  to 
private  good,  his  own  preservation  and  happiness;  and  the 
nature  of  man  as  having  respect  to  society,  and  tending  to  pro- 
mote public  good,  the  happiness  of  that  society."  ^  These  ends 
coincide  and  mutually  promote  each  other.  There  is  a  natural 
principle  of  benevolence  in  man  which  is  in  some  degree  to 
society  what  self-love  is  to  the  individual.  Butler  takes  direct 
issue  with  Hobbes  and  denies  that  this  can  be  resolved  into  love 
of  power,  etc. 

These  appetites  and  affections  make  for  public  good  and  are 
a  mark  of  our  Maker's  care  for  the  species. 

There  is  also  a  principle  in  men  which  leads  them  to  reflect 
on  themselves.  "This  principle  in  man,  by  which  he  approves 
or  disapproves  his  heart,  temper,  and  actions,  is  conscience." 
This  is  the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  Conscience  approves  of 
our  good  conduct  toward  society,  and  thus  shows  "  that  wc  were 
made  for  society,  and  to  promote  the  happiness  of  it,  as  that 

'  Second  letter  to  Dr.  Clarke. 

*  Sermon  I.  »  Sermon  I. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  459 

we  were  intended  to  take  care  of  our  own  life  and  health  for 
private  good."  ' 

Butler  takes  a  more  hopeful  view  of  human  nature  than  the 
traditional  theology  of  post- Reformation  times.  Man  has  no 
inherent  "love  of  injustice,  oppression,  treachery,  ingratitude; 
but  only  eager  desires  after  such  and  such  external  goods." 
True,  man  may  be  without  such  natural  affection  for  the  social 
good,  but  he  is  also -found  without  natural  affection  for  himself. 
"  But  the  nature  of  man  is  not  to  be  judged  of  either  of  these,  but 
what  appears  in  the  common  world,  in  the  bulk  of  mankind."^ 

The  real  difficulty  is  that  men  lack  "cool  and  reasonable 
concern  enough  for  themselves  to  consider  wherein  their  chief 
happiness  in  the  present  life  consists;  or  else,  if  they  do  consider 
it  .  .  .  reasonable  concern  for  themselves  or  cool  self-love  is 
prevailed  over  by  passion  and  appetite."  This  conscience  is  a 
"natural  faculty"  and  "bears  its  own  authority  of  being  so."  ^ 
"  Self-love  is  in  human  nature  a  superior  principle  to  passion," 
to  act  conformably  to  the  economy  of  man's  nature,  "reasonable 
self-love  must  govern."  "The  natural  supremacy  of  reflection 
or  conscience  being  thus  established,"  *  we  get  some  idea  of 
human  nature  as  a  system.  Buder  assumes  that  the  plain  man 
knows  his  duty,  his  obligation  to  do  it  springs  from  the  internal 
obligation.  "Your  obligation  to  obey  this  law  is  its  being  the 
law  of  your  nature."  ^  Yet  "self-love  then,  though  confined  to 
the  interests  of  the  present  world,  does  in  general  perfectly 
coincide  with  virtue,  and  leads  us  to  one  and  the  same  course 
of  life."  « 

So  that  at  last  Butler  traces  ethics  to  the  public  and  private 
functions  of  the  individual  and  to  his  self-love  and  desire  for 
social  peace.  There  is  also  an  intellectual  reflective  element 
brought  in.  Conscience  is  really  moral  intelligence.  It  declares 
what  is  good  and  what  is  evil  as  well  as  lends  sanctions  to  con- 
duct. In  the  sermons  on  compassion,  Buder  teaches  that  it 
belongs  to  man's  nature  to  rejoice  with  them  that  do  rejoice,  etc., 

»  Sermon  I.  =  Sermon  I.  ^  Sermon  II. 

*  Sermon  III.  *  Sermon  III.  ®  Sermon  III. 


46o  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

and  that  a  man  must  act  up  to  his  "nature,"  by  which  Butler 
means  the  ideal  system  from  which  alone  we  can  judge  of  human 
conduct. 

In  all  the  men  from  Cumberland  to  Butler  it  is  assumed  that 
not  only  are  there  postulates  of  right  moral  reason  common  to 
all  men  in  all  ages,  but  also  an  ethical  content  that  can  easily 
be  examined.  They  loosely  identify  this  with  the  "ethics  of 
revealed  religion,"  as  if  there  were  not  many  "  ethics"  in  revealed 
religion.  Not  even  the  work  of  one  like  Collins  *  could  call  men 
back  to  real  study  of  the  actual  Scriptures.  All  was  still  seen 
through  the  mists  of  a  priori  dogmatism  or  equally  dogmatic 
indifference. 

The  movement  of  thought  had  seemingly  been  caught  in  a 
whirlpool  without  escape.  The  work  of  John  Locke  fell  really 
upon  barren  ground  among  the  deists.  Only  his  negations  and 
critical  work  had  caught  their  attention  and  they  vainly  attempted 
to  substitute  an  unexamined  tradition  half  pagan  and  half 
scholastic  for  the  faith  in  Christian  morals  that  had  once  rested 
upon  the  church. 

It  remained  for  one  to  awake  men  both  on  the  Continent  and 
in  England  from  their  dogmatic  slumbers,  and  by  scepticism 
with  regard  to  the  whole  accepted  psychology  of  knowledge  to 
call  men  to  a  larger  basis  for  the  ethical  life. 

This  voice  was  that  of  David  Hume,-  whose  epistemology  is 
substantially  based  upon  that  of  Locke.  The  mind  is  thought 
of  primarily  as  passive  and  receptive.     Impressions  give  rise  to 

'  Collins,  Anthony,  born  June  21,  1676,  died  December  13,  1729.  See  particu- 
larly his  "  Scheme  of  Literal  Prophecy  Considered  .  .  .  ,"  printed  anonymously, 
London,  1727. 

*  Hume,  David,  born  Edinburgh,  April  26  (O.  S.),  171 1,  died  August  25,  1776. 
He  wrote  a  short  sketch  of  his  own  life  and  Adam  Smith  completed  it  by  an 
account  of  his  death.  Both  arc  published  in  Green  (T.  H.)  &  Grose's  (T.  H.) 
edition  of  his  philosophical  works,  Edinburgh,  4  vols.,  1875-1878,  in  vol.  HI 
(1875)  or  vol.  I  of  the  "Essays."  A  complete  edition  of  his  philosophical  works 
first  appeared  in  4  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1826.  His  life  and  correspondence  are 
edited  by  John  Hill  Burton  in  2  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1846,  reprinted  1854.  Fried- 
rich  Jodl  has  described  his  philosophy  in"  Lebcnund  Philosophic  David  Hume's" 
Halle,  1872.     George  von  Gizycki  has  elaborated  his  ethics,  "Die  Ethik  David 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  461 

"simple  ideas,"  and  complex  ideas  are  worked  up  by  reflection. 
The  more  or  less  "  lively"  character  of  these  ideas  determine  their 
reality  for  us. 

On  this  basis  Hume  begins  his  study  of  "man."  All  science 
will  depend  primarily  on  its  correct  estimate  of  man  and  human 
nature.  We  must  examine  the  extent  and  force  of  the  under- 
standing, the  nature  of  ideas,  and  the  operations  in  reasoning. 
Knowledge  can  only  rest  upon  the  solid  foundation  of  experience 
and  observation.  The  ultimate  essence  of  the  mind  is,  like 
the  ultimate  essence  of  the  external  bodies  which  constitute  the 
world,  utterly  unknown.  It  must  therefore'  be  equally  im- 
possible to  form  any  notion  of  its  powers  and  qualities  otherwise 
than  from  careful  and  exact  experiments.^  It  is  at  this  point 
that  the  fruitful  scepticism  of  Hume  made  way  for  a  more 
modern  positivism. 

Hume  then  discusses  how  the  raw  material  given  in  sensation 
is  worked  up  by  the  mind  under  the  head  of  the  relation  of  ideas, 
and  thus  formulates  his  famous  contribution  on  the  connection 
or  association  of  ideas.^  The  law  of  this  association  he  formu- 
lated under  resemblance,  contiguity,  and  cause  and  effect. 
"These  qualities,"  he  says,  "produce  an  association  among 
ideas"  and  "upon  the  appearance  of  one  idea  naturally  intro- 
duce another."  All  philosophical  relations  he  thus  groups  under 
seven  heads:  Resemblance,  Identity,  Space  and  Time,  Quan- 
tity or  Number,  Degree,  Contrariety,  Cause  and  Effect.'  Into 
his  discussion  of  these  principles  we  must  not  go,  although  they 
have  important  bearing  upon  his  ethics.  All  our  knowledge, 
including  of  course  moral  knowledge,  springs  from  habit  or 
custom  founded  upon  observation  and  experience,  and   "all 

Hume's  in  ihrer  geschichtlichen  Stellung,"  Breslau,  1878.  Clear  but  somewhat 
shallow  is  Leslie  Stephen's  account  in  his  "  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,"  vol.  I  (1876).  The  essay  by  Thomas  H.  Green  that  precedes  his 
edition  of  the  philosophical  works  is  of  great  interest,  but  calls  for  critical  exam- 
ination at  almost  every  page. 

*  Introduction  to  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  p.  308,  vol.  I,  Green's  edition. 

*  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  book  I,  p.  i,  §  IV. 

'  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  book  I,  §  V,  and  book  III,  §  I. 


462  HISTORY   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

knowledge  resolves  itself  into  probability."  ^  But  we  must 
think  and  know;  hence  by  a  "law  of  nature"  we  are  saved  from 
any  undue  scepticism.^  Hume  was  assured  that  "all  probable 
reasoning  is  nothing  but  a  species  of  sensation.  'Tis  not  solely 
in  poetry  and  music  we  must  follow  our  taste  and  sentiment,  but 
likewise  in  philosophy.  When  I  am  convinced  of  any  principle 
'tis  only  an  idea  which  strikes  more  strongly  upon  me.  When 
I  give  the  preference  to  one  set  of  arguments  above  another,  I  do 
nothing  but  decide  from  my  feeling  concerning  the  superiority  of 
their  influence."  ' 

Hume  begins  his  moral  treatise  by  a  discourse  on  the  passions, 
which  are  impressions  arising  within  the  body,  and  are  secondary 
or  reflective  impressions,  "such  as  proceed  from  some  of  these 
original  ones,  either  immediately  or  by  the  interposition  of  its 
idea."  These  passions  he  rather  apologetically  divides  into 
"calm"  and  "violent,"  "direct"  and  "indirect."  The  whole 
book  (II)  is  full  of  keen  and  shrewd  psychology.  But  it  is  in 
the  third  book  that  morals  are  more  especially  dealt  with. 
Morals  are  based  upon  perceptions,  "  to  approve  of  one  character, 
to  condemn  another,  are  only  so  many  different  perceptions."  * 
But  as  perceptions  may  be  ideas  or  impressions,  we  ask  in  which 
class  do  morals  come?  And  Hume  answers  that  reason  is 
inert,  and  that  therefore  it  is  not  in  the  region  of  ideas  that 
morals  must  be  sought,  and  they  are  not  derived  from  reason, 
but  our  "passions,  volitions,  and  actions  are  not  susceptible  of 
any  such  agreement  or  disagreement;  being  original  facts  and 
realities  complete  in  themselves."  ^  Thus  "vice  and  virtue  may 
be  compared  to  sounds,  colors,  heat,  and  cold,  which  according 
to  modern  philosophy  are  not  qualities  in  objects,  but  percep- 
tions of  the  mind."  '  What  we  now  know  as  a  "judgment  of 
value"  thus  goes  back  under  a  rather  complicated  terminology 

'  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  book  IV,  §  I. 
^  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  book  IV^,  §  I. 

'  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  book  I,  part  2,  §  VII.     The  whole  section  is 
very  instructive — and  modern! 

*  "Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  book  III,  i  :  I. 

'  B.K.k  III,  part  I,  §  I.  8  Book  III,  jnirt  i,  §1- 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM   463 

to  Hume.  These  sentiments  produced  by  impressions  are 
either  agreeable  or  disagreeable.  "That  arising  from  virtue  is 
agreeable,  that  from  vice  is  disagreeable."  *  Thus  this  pleasure 
is  of  a  peculiar  kind,  each  pleasure  has  its  own  character,  and 
so  the  pleasure  of  virtue  has  its  own  character.  Wine  is  not 
harmonious  nor  is  music  of  a  good  flavor,  though  both  give 
pleasure  after  their  kind.^  This  peculiar  form  of  pleasure-pain 
sensation  has  its  roots,  not  in  an  original  quality  nor  primary  con- 
stitution, nor  yet  in  that  ambiguous  thing  "Nature";  nor  yet 
in  self-love,  which  rather  produces  evil,  nor  in  any  "love  of 
mankind,"  as  that  is  not  really  existent  as  such,  nor  even  directly 
in  sympathy,  but  its  origin  is  social,  "in  that  justice  creates 
force,  ability,  and  security.  And  it  arises  primarily  from  prop- 
erty considerations,  so  that  justice  is  a  convention  founded  upon 
"a  general  sense  of  common  interest."  ^  Thus  "'tis  only  from 
the  selfishness  and  confined  generosity  of  men,  along  with  the 
scanty  provision  nature  has  made  for  his  wants  that  justice 
derives  its  origin."  *  So  justice  is  not  founded  on  our  ideas,  but 
on  our  impressions,  and  these  are  not  natural  (/.  e.,  innate),  but 
arise  from  artifice  and  human  conventions. 

"  Thus  self-interest  is  the  original  motive  to  the  establishment 
of  justice;  but  a  sympathy  with  public  interest  is  the  source  of 
the  moral  approbation  which  attends  that  virtue."  ^ 

Hume  thinks  that  although  politicians  in  order  to  govern  men 
more  easily  "  have  endeavored  to  produce  an  esteem  for  justice  and 
an  abhorrence  for  injustice,"  but  that  at  the  same  time  certain 
writers  on  morals  have  gone  too  far  in  "efforts  to  extirpate  all 
sense  of  virtue  from  among  mankind."  These  discriminations 
rise  "naturally"  out  of  the  situation.  Property  and  justice 
rise  together.  Before  property  there  was  "no  such  thing  as 
justice  or  injustice."  "  Hence  Hume  enters  upon  questions  of 
legal  casuistry  in  connection  with  property  rights  in  attempting 
to  define  the  ethics  of  property. 

'  Book  III,  I,  §  II.         ^  Book  I,  part  i,  §  III.         '  Book  III,  part  2,  §  II. 

*  Book  III,  part  2,  §  II.  '  Book  III,  2  :  II. 

•  Book  III,  2  :  II. 


464  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

So  keeping  of  promises  is  not  a  "natural"  but  a  conventional 
virtue,  it  is  an  invention  "founded  on  the  necessities  and  inter- 
ests of  society."  *  Men  being  naturally  selfish  and  very  limited 
in  our  kindness  and  affection,  the  keeping  of  promises  is  not 
based  on  this,  but  on  the  necessity  for  insuring  a  return  for  any 
favor  I  do.  "Hence  I  learn  to  do  a  service  to  another  without 
bearing  him  any  real  kindness."  ^  Here,  as  elsewhere, "  public 
interest,  education,  and  the  artifices  of  politicians"  effect  the 
same  in  all  cases. 

So  the  peace  and  security  of  society  depend  on  keeping  three 
laws,  "that  of  stability  of  possession,  of  its  transference  by 
consent,  and  of  the  performance  of  promises."  And  "society  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  the  well-being  of  men;  and  these  are 
necessary  to  the  support  of  society."  ' 

So  this  legal-ethical  system  is  built  up  on  public  utility  and 
"the  propensities  of  the  imagination."  * 

In  Hume's  discussion  of  the  rise  of  government  we  have  sub- 
stantially Hobbes's  theory  that  it  arises  out  of  the  necessity  on 
the  part  of  all  to  maintain  peace  for  the  good  of  all. 

In  tracing  the  history  of  the  other  virtues  and  vices  that  do 
not  depend  upon  the  "artifice  and  contrivance"  of  men,  the 
principle  of  sympathy  is  brought  in.^  All  virtue  and  vice  depend 
upon  our  pleasure-pain  sensations.  Utility  gives  pleasure  and 
the  associations  with  utility  tend  to  suggest  pleasure  (assthetics). 
There  are  four  sources  of  moral  distinctions,  "for  we  reap  a 
pleasure  from  the  view  of  a  character  which  is  naturally  fitted 
to  be  useful  to  others  or  to  the  person  himself,  or  which  is 
agreeable  to  others  or  to  the  person  himself." 

There  are,  as  any  one  may  see,  confusions  in  Hume's  most 
acute  discussion,  nor  are  these  cleared  up  in  his  later  thinking. 
But  Hume  rendered  immortal  service  in  once  and  for  all  com- 
pelling ethics  to  leave  its  old  scholastic  authoritative  basis  and 
seek  its  basis  in  faith's  view  of  the  world  as  rational  and  good, 
while  it  confesses  that  this  cannot  be  demonstrated;    and  to 

•  Book  III,  part  2,  §  V.  » Book  III,  part  2,  §  V. 

»  Book  III,  2  :  VI.  *  Book  III,  2  :  VI.  »  Book  III,  3  :  I. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  465 

seek  its  content  in  an  examination  of  the  actual  experiences  of 
men  with  social  utility  as  the  measure  at  hand  for  the  empiric 
testing  of  special  lines  of  conduct. 

In  all  its  strength  and  weakness  the  ethical  system  of  Hume 
was  most  elaborately  and  clearly  formulated  by  his  great  friend 
and  fellow-student  Adam  Smith,^  who  thereby  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  all  empiric  utilitarianism  in  its  various  shapes.  It  is 
a  wonderfully  shrewd  analysis  of  the  moral  psychology  of  the 
existent  humanity.  Like  Hume,  Adam  Smith  does  not  dog- 
matize upon  the  metaphysics  of  the  moral  nature,  but  simply 
analyzes  it.  "Upon  whatever,"  he  says,  "we  suppose  that  our 
moral  faculties  are  founded,  whether  upon  a  certain  modifica- 
tion of  reason,  upon  an  original  instinct  called  moral  sense,  or 
upon  some  other  principle  of  our  nature,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  they  were  given  us  for  the  direction  of  our  conduct  in  this 
life."  =* 

He  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  basis  of  the  moral  life 
is  sympathy,  or  fellow-feeling  with  the  natures  akin  to  ours. 
This  is,  however,  not  a  resolution  of  morality  into  selfish  feeling, 
for  what  we  do  is  not  to  transfer  his  feeling  to  us,  but  our  feeling 
to  him.  We  feel  his  resentment  against  oppression  or  his  joy 
at  the  success  of  an  enterprise.  When  we  see  our  fellow-man 
exult  or  resent,  we  put  ourselves  in  his  place  (as  far  as  we  can 
do  so),  and  now  we  approve  or  disapprove  of  his  exultation  or 

*  Smith,  Adam,  born  June  5,  1723,  died  July  17,  1790.  Famous  for  his 
creation  of  modern  English  political  economy  by  his  book,  "An  Inquiry  Into 
the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations,"  published  March  9,  1776, 
after  a  delay  of  nine  years;  with  a  life  of  the  author  by  J.  R.  McCulloch,  1828; 
edited  by  E.  G.  Wakefield,  4  vols.,  1835-1839;  Edinburgh,  1846;  reprinted 
(Sth  edition)  1863.  Recent  editions  are  those  edited  by  James  Edwin  Thorold 
Rogers,  Oxford,  1869,  2  vols.,  2d  edition,  1880,  by  J.  T.  Nicholson,  1884;  and 
by  E.  Cannan,  New  York,  Putnam,  1904,  in  2  vols.  Previously  he  had  published 
his  "Theory  of  the  Moral  Sentiments"  in  1759;  2d  edition,  1759;  3d  edition,  1767; 
6th  revised  edition,  1790;  a  12th  edition  in  1809.  The  best  life  is  by  John  Rae, 
London,  Macmillan,  1895,  which  is  founded  upon  the  sketch  by  Dugald  Stewart, 
"Account  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Adam  Smith,  LL.D.,  F.R.S."  in  Smith, 
Adam,  "Essays  on  Philosophical  Subjects,"  London,  1795;  also  in  Smith's 
"Works,"  5  vols.,  London,  1811-1812. 

*  "The  Theory  of  the  Moral  Sentiments,"  III,  3  :  3. 


466  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

his  resentment,  according  as  the  situation  as  we  conceive  it 
seems  to  us  to  demand  exultation  or  resentment.  Then  by  a 
third  step  we  know  our  own  conduct  in  the  mirror  of  other 
people's  conduct,  and  we  judge  ourselves  as  an  "impartial 
spectator"  might  be  supposed  to  judge  us;  thus  we  construct 
moral  maxims  by  which  we  rule  our  life.  These  maxims  are 
thus  rational.  "The  general  maxims  of  morality  are  formed 
like  all  other  general  maxims  from  experience  and  induction."  * 
At  the  same  time  the  first  moral  perceptions  are  not  based  upon 
reason  but  upon  "sense  and  feeling."  Nor  is  utility  primary. 
"Originally,  however,  we  approve  of  another  man's  judgment 
not  as  something  useful,  but  as  right."  ^  In  what  is  undoubtedly 
a  critique  of  his  friend  Hume,^  he  draws  a  clear  and  in  the  main 
correct  line  between  utility  as  a  test  of  moral  conduct  and  as 
a  source  for  moral  feeling.  The  moral  faculties  "carry  along 
with  them  the  most  evident  badges  of  this  (moral)  authority" 
and  "were  set  up  within  us  to  be  the  supreme  arbiters  of  all  our 
actions."  *  Man  is  social  in  his  nature.  He  gets  his  standards 
of  taste  from  seeing  and  judging  other  men,  then  judging  him- 
self as  he  thinks  others  see  him  and  judge  him.  We  look  at 
ourselves  in  the  mirror  of  public  opinion.  Thus  we  adapt  our- 
selves to  life  by  gradual  process.  "It  is  thus  that  man  who  can 
subsist  only  in  society,  was  fitted  by  nature  to  that  situation  for 
which  he  was  made."  ^ 

At  the  same  time  Adam  Smith  is,  like  all  the  empiric  school 
even  after  Bcntham,  fundamentally  individualistic.  He  recog- 
nizes no  organic  unity  as  underlying  the  social  sameness.  All 
things  are  adjusted  in  nature  for  the  "support  of  the  individual 
and  the  propagation  of  the  species."  " 

One  of  the  serious  blemishes,  apart  from  the  false  place  given 
sympathy  in  the  discussion,  is  the  confusion  in  his  treatment  of 
justice.  Justice  is,  according  to  Adam  Smith,  an  exact  science 
as  the  grammar  is  in  speech  exact,  while  moral  rules  are  loose 
and   appeal   to   the   individual   instinct.     He   then   confounds 

'  VI,  3.  »  I,  2  :  2.  '  IV,  4  :  2. 

*  III,  3:3.  •11,3:2.  •11,2:2. 


ETHICS  OF  PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  467 

justice  with  law  in  a  way  that  again  has  been  fruitful  of  many 
other  confusions  in  English  thinking. 

The  little  sketch  of  the  unfolding  of  ethics  in  the  sixth  book 
is  still  interesting  and  instructive.  His  criticism  of  Hutcheson, 
his  old  teacher,  is  both  acute  and  instructive;  and  some  of  his 
criticism  still  has  force  against  some  modern  ethics. 

The  main  lack  is  Adam  Smith's  failure  to  consider  the  meta- 
physical elements  involved,  and  to  follow  up  Hume's  theory  of 
knowledge  to  its  logical  issue. 

At  the  same  time  this  was  not  wholly  a  misfortune.  From 
Adam  Smith  an  ethics  stood  forth  to  claim  a  place  as  a  science 
as  separate  from  dogmatic  religion  as  philosophy  is  from  theol- 
ogy. From  this  time  on  consciously  or  unconsciously  theology 
recognized  the  fact  that  given,  on  the  basis  of  a  religious  faith, 
the  postulates  of  a  Christian  life,  the  contents  of  that  life,  so 
far  as  they  are  ethical,  must  be  worked  out  empirically. 

From  Hume  on  there  is  no  ecclesiastical  ethics  worth  discuss- 
ing. Protestantism  was  freed  from  the  bonds  of  scholastic 
authoritarianism.  The  closed  system  was  broken  up  by 
Hume's  merciless  critique,  and  a  new  freedom  found.  The- 
ologians like  frightened  children  have  hardly  yet  dared  to  enter 
into  the  higher  and  nobler  freedom  of  redemptive  love.  But 
from  Hume  on  the  history  of  Christian  ethics  is  no  longer  con- 
fined "within  organized  Christianity." 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE     CONTINENTAL     REFORMATION     AND     ITS 

ETHICS 

I.  The  Ethics  of  Luther,  (i)  The  Protestant  Elements  in  Luther's 
Ethics.  (2)  The  Scholastic  Elements  in  Luther's  Ethics.  (3)  The 
Practical  Ethics  of  Luther— II.  The  Ethics  of  Melanchthon— III. 
The  Anabaptist  Movement  and  Its  Ethics— IV.  The  Ethics  of  the 
Reformed  Churches— V.  The  Ethics  of  John  Calvin— VI.  The 
Ethics  of  the  Creeds— VII.  The  Epigones  and  Their  Ethics— VIII. 
The  New  Protestant  Casuistry— IX.  The  Ethics  of  Pietism— X. 
The  Ethics  of  Post-Tridentine  Roman  Catholicism — XL  The  Ethics 
of  Philosophical  Protestantism  on  the  Continent. 

I.      THE  ETHICS   OF  LUTHER 

The  systematic  attempt  at  churchly  reorganization  was  effec- 
tively carried  through  by  two  men,  Martin  Luther  *  and  John 
Calvin,  although  on  different  principles.  They  were  not, 
indeed,  alone,  nor  did  they  lack  forerunners,  like  Wyclif  and 
Wyclif s  translator  Huss.     But  neither  Wyclif  nor  Zwingh  left 

'  Luther,  Martin,  born  November  10,  1483,  at  Eisleben,  where  he  also  died, 
February  18,  1546.  The  outline  of  his  life  is  too  familiar  and  accessible  to 
warrant  condensation  here.  Of  the  seven  relatively  complete  editions  of  his 
works  (Wittenberg,  1539-1558;  Jena,  1555-1558;  Altenburg,  1661-1664; 
Leipsic,  1729-1740,  Halle  [Walsch],  1740-1753;  Erlangen-Frankfurt,  1826-1857 
[Latin  works  and  letters  later  as  supplement,  in  all  more  than  one  hundred 
volumes];  Weimar,  1883  [and  yet  in  progress,  some  thirty-eight  quarto  volumes 
having  appeared]),  the  only  ones  of  importance  to  us  are  the  last  three.  (Our 
citations  are  all  from  the  Erlangen-Frankfurt  or  Weimar  editions,  or  from 
Endcrs's  edition  of  the  "Letters".)  A  useful  cheap  selection  is  the  edition 
edited  by  Buchwald,  Kawerau,  Kostlin,  Rade,  and  Schneider,  in  eight  duodecimo 
volumes  (with  index  separate  by  R.  Sell,  1899),  2d  edition,  Berlin,  C.  A.  Schwet- 
schke,  1898.  A  fairly  good  translation  into  English  of  some  of  his  chief  works 
("A  Short  Catechism,"  "The  Greater  Catechism,"  "Address  to  the  Christian 
Nobility,"  "Concerning  Christian  Liberty,"  "  On  the  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the 
Church,"  "The  Ninety-five  Theses)  is  "Primary  Works,  Translated  into  English 
by  Henry  Wace  and  C.  A.  Buchheim,  with  Theological  and  Historical  Essays," 
London,  Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1896,  2d  edition.  Until  the  "Tabletalk"  has 
been  carefully  re-edited,  as  it  no  doubt  will  be  in  the  Weimar  edition,  it  can  only 

468 


THE   ETHICS   OF  LUTHER  469 

behind  them  organizations  reflecting  their  special  type  of 
thought  and  feeling.  It  is  doubtful  whether,  even  had  Zwingli 
lived,  the  Swiss  reformation  would  have  lasted  had  not  Calvin 
joined  it.  It  is  also  perfectly  true  that  neither  Luther  nor 
Calvin  fully  realized  the  complete  implications  of  their  break 
with  Rome.  In  various  degrees  they  both  moved  within  a 
closed  system  contained  in  the  Bible,  and  handed  down  to  the 
church  for  safe-keeping.^  In  this  sense  they  were  both  as  much 
scholastics  as  Anselm  or  Thomas  Aquinas,  It  was  only  the 
claim  to  judge  the  church  by  the  Bible  rather  than  the  Bible  by 
the  church  that  separated  them  from  the  scholastic  period.    And 

be  cited  in  support  of  positions  otherwise  clear,  for  much  that  passes  as  Luther's 
talk  was  no  doubt  utterly  irresponsible  gossip.  The  best  "Life"  is  that  of 
Julius  Kostlin,  "Martin  Luther,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Schriften,"  2  vols.,  3d 
edition,  Leipsic,  1883,  5th  edition,  edited  by  G.  Kawerau,  Berlin,  1903;  English 
translation  of  the  first  edition  by  E.  P.  Weir,  London,  1883,  and  another,  London, 
Longmans,  1895.  Another  good  "Life"  from  a  different  point  of  view  is  by 
Adolf  Hausrath,  "Luther's  Leben,"  Berlin,  2  vols,  1904-1905.  Kostlin's 
"Luther's  Theologie  in  ihrer  geschichtlichen  Entwickelung,  und  ihrem  inneren 
Zusammenhange,"  etc.,  Stuttgart,  1863,  is  translated  from  the  2d  edition  by 
C.  E.  Hay,  Philadelphia,  2  vols.,  1897.  Theodor  Harnack's  "  Luther's  Theologie 
mit  besonderer  Beziehung  auf  seine  Versohnungs  und  Erlosungslehre,"  2  vols., 
Erlangen,  1862,  1886,  gives  a  mass  of  valuable  material  for  the  student  of  ethics. 
For  Luther's  ethics,  see  Luthardt,  Christoph  Ernst:  "Die  Ethik  Luthers  in  ihren 
Grundziigen,"  2d  edition,  Leipsic,  1875,  and  "Luther  nach  seiner  ethischen 
Bedeutung,"  Vortrag,  Leipsic,  1883;  Lommatzsch,  Siegfried  Otto  Nathanael: 
"Luther's  Lehre  vom  ethisch-religiosen  Standpunkte  aus  und  mit  besonderer 
Beriicksichtigung  seiner  Lehre  vom  Gesetze  dargestellt,"  Berlin,  1879;  Hering, 
Hermann:  "Die  Mystik  Luthers  im  Zusammenhange  seiner  Theologie  und  in 
ihrem  Verhaltniss  zur  alteren  Mystik,"  Leipsic,  1879.  From  a  hostile  point  of 
view,  Denifle,  Heinrich  Suso,  O.Pr.:  "Luther  und  Lutherthum  in  der  ersten 
Entwicklung  quellenmassig  dargestellt,"  Mainz,  1904-1906,  3  vols,  in  4.  But 
see  also  Walther,  Wilh.  M.:  "Fur  Luther  wider  Rom  .  .  .  ,"  Halle,  1906,  and 
Janssen,  Johannes:  "Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes  seit  dem  Ausgang  des 
Mittelalters,"  Freiburg,  1876,  seq.,  8  vols.,  15th  to  i8th  eds.;  Freiburg  i.B.,  1897- 
1904;  English'translation  by  M.  A.  Mitchell  and  A.  M.  Christie,  London  and  St. 
Louis,  14  vols.,  1900-1909.  Special  literature  will  be  noticed  in  the  discussion. 
'  Luther  in  1520  wrote:  "Und  das  thun  sie  darumb,  den  die  weyl  sie  wissen, 
und  war  ist,  das  die  gemeyne  christliche  kirche  (das  ist  alle  christen  sempthich 
in  aller  welt)  nit  yrren  mag,"  Weimar  edition,  vol.  VI,  p.  615.  C/.,  also, 
"Adversus  execrabilem  Antichristi  bullam,"  Weimar  edition,  vol.  VI,  p.  607. 
Calvin  speaks  of  truth  as  "thesaurum  hunc  apud  ecclesiam  deposuit,"  "Instit. 
Christ,"  book  IV,  i  :  i. 


470  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

more  particularly  upon  the  field  of  ethics  did  Luther  shrink 
from  being  considered  either  revolutionary  or  an  innovator.* 

Both  Luther  and  Calvin  estimated  highly  the  task  to  vi^hich 
scholasticism  had  addressed  itself,  namely,  the  systematic 
formulation  and  defence  of  revealed  truth.  And  both  regarded 
correct  thinking  as  of  more  fundamental  importance  than  con- 
duct.^ The  reason  is  also  plain.  Correct  conduct  depends,  in  the 
view  of  scholasticism,  on  holding  in  all  its  fulness  the  conception 
of  the  world  revealed  by  God  once  and  for  all,  and  handed  down 
to  a  church  for  safe-keeping,  proclamation,  and  explication. 

The  highest  service  Luther  rendered  was  his  placing,  with 
magnificent  inconsistency,  the  ethical-religious  interest  distinctly 
in  the  foreground,  and  that  on  the  basis  of  his  personal  religious 
experience.  Like  Paul,  Luther  based  his  message  upon  a 
tremendous  religious  experience  of  catastrophic  character.  Like 
Paul,  his  quarrel  with  the  organized  religious  life  of  his  day  was 
its  ethical  ineffectiveness.  It  is  absurdly  unhistorical  to  charge, 
as  some  have  done,  that  Luther  simply  sought  license.^  This 
was  also  charged  against  Paul  by  the  organized  religious  life 
of  his  day.  Luther  put  life  before  doctrine,  and  vital  righteous- 
ness before  formal  correctness  whenever  the  issue  was  really 
raised.    They  were  supreme  with  him. 

Nowhere  is  this  more  plainly  seen  than  in  his  famous  ninety- 
five  theses.  Here  the  whole  underlying  thought  is  that  the  really 
repentant  man  does  not  seek  to  escape  his  punishment  but  his 
sin;  and  that  the  whole  system  of  indulgences  blurred  the 
vision  of  sin.  Luther's  movement  began  in  no  revolt  against 
Rome,  but  against  local  abuse,  and  thus  Luther  became  the 

'  Preface  to  the  "Little  Catechism,"  (enchiridion),  1529. 

^  In  1523  Luther  wrote:  "Ich  hab  vorhynn  gesagt,  das  eyn  ander  ding  ist 
die  Lere  und  das  leben.  Darumb  sollt  yhrs  gar  wol  untcrscheydcn,  denn  Gott 
ist  nicht  pzo  (so)  viel  gelegen  am  leben  als  an'der  Lere,  darumb  lest  er  die  scyncn 
oft  strauchlen  ym  leben,  wie  wyr  lesen.  Aber  was  die  lere  angehet,  da  hatt  cr 
sic  Keyn  har  dreyt  fallen  lassen.  Deun  eyn  boses  leben  ist  nyrgent  pzo  shedlich 
als  bose  lere,"  "Predigt  am  Johannistage  24tcn  Jnui,  1522,"  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  X,  part  3,  p.  201.    Cj.  with  this  also  Calvin's  "Institutions,"  book  IV,  i  :  12. 

'  So  Dcnifle,  "Luther  and  Luthcrthum,"  pp.  90-97,  2d  edition,  vol.  I,  part 
I,  and  ullramontanism  generally. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  LUTHER  471 

leader  in  a  revolt  more  far-reaching  than  he  could  realize  or 
than  some  of  his  professed  followers  realize  to-day.  The  world 
of  his  thought  remained  to  the  end  colored  by  scholasticism,  and 
his  Protestantism  only  became  pronounced  when  a  practical 
issue  forced  him  to  face  outworn  formulae  and  to  deny  them. 
Then  in  this  denial  he  forced  the  issue  and  bravely  maintained 
the  authority  and  moral  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  man. 

To  the  end  his  own  personal  religious  experience  was  shad- 
owed over  by  the  morbidness  of  a  substantially  dualistic  and 
often  despondent  view  of  life.  He  was  here  at  one  with  Augus- 
tine and  Francis  of  Assisi  and  St.  Bernhard.  The  sharp  con- 
trasts between  the  lights  and  the  shadows  grew  deeper  as  time 
went  on.  Indeed  in  the  whole  Reformation  movement  one  sees 
the  conflict  constantly  emerging  within  the  movement  itself 
between  the  now  muddy  waters  of  a  lifeless  scholasticism  and 
the  clearer  springs  of  a  new  fountain. 

The  Roman  Catholic  position  was  weakened  by  the  same 
conflict.  Humanism  within  had  made  her  resistance  weak.  It 
was  only  when  the  newer  elements  had  been  absorbed  or  driven 
out  that  she  presented  a  strong  united  front,  in  the  counter- 
reformation,  to  a  still  divided  and  immature  Protestantism. 

This  divided  world  Luther  reflected  with  extraordinary  exact- 
ness in  his  life  and  his  teachings.  That  was  in  part  his  tre- 
mendous power.  Although  Luther,  unlike  Calvin,  never  en- 
gaged in  the  actual  task  of  reconstructing  a  new  theocratic  state, 
his  ideal  was  such  a  state.  He,  however,  called  the  German 
princes  to  this  task.  He  regarded  them  as  the  God-sent  instru- 
ments for  doing  that  work.  His  mission  was  political  as  well 
as  religious,  and  in  this  work  there  is  in  Luther  none  of  that 
intellectual  aloofness  which  marks  Calvin. 

He  was  a  product  of  the  social  struggle  and  political  readjust- 
ments born  of  a  thousand  new  conditions,  among  which  we 
have  seen  were  the  new  commerce;  the  wider  world  (America 
discovered,  1492);  the  triumph  of  imperialism  (Charles  V, 
Francis  I);  the  flowering  of  the  Germanic  free  city;  the  spread 
of  new  learning;    the  opening  up  of  a  world-wide  system  of 


472  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

roads;  the  fixing  of  European  boundaries  (the  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople, 1453,  ^^^  the  fall  of  Granada,  1492);  the  reformation 
of  the  Roman  communion  within  (Council  of  Constance,  1414) 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Inquisition;  the  rise  of  definite 
national  tongues  with  national  literatures — French,  High  Ger- 
man, Low  German,  English,  Italian;  the  beginning  of  the  strug- 
gle of  the  bourgeoisie  with  feudalism;  the  real  democratization  of 
learning  by  the  printing-press;  the  invention  of  gunpowder;  the 
founding  of  a  new  astronomy  (Copernican) ;  the  practical  use 
of  the  compass;  in  a  word,  the  beginning  of  the  new  world,  with 
a  slowly  growing  consciousness  of  the  value  of  organized  expe- 
rience and  the  futility  of  a  priori  speculation  without  the  con- 
stant testing  of  every  hypothesis  by  such  organized  experience. 

It  is  perfectly  vain  to  claim  that  Luther  belonged  wholly  to 
our  modern  world.  There  are  wonderfully  radical  notes  in 
him,  and  he  united  great  insight  into  the  weaknesses  of  mediaeval- 
ism  with  boldness  and  even  daring  in  speech  and  thought.  Yet 
he  remained  essentially  conservative  and  even  scholastic  in 
temper  and  method.  He  never  completely  reacted  from  the 
cloister  type  of  ethics,  and  in  him  reactionary  forces  have  found 
strength  and  comfort  ever  since. 

The  supreme  service  Luther  rendered  was  that  as  he  actually 
did  put  life  before  dogma,  and  the  religious-ethical  interest  in 
the  foreground  instead  of  scholastic  speculation,  he  once  more 
made  religion  a  vital  factor  in  social  reconstruction.  He  was 
not  democratic  in  his  thought  or  mood.  He  belonged  rather  to 
the  forceful  middle-class  not  yet  come  to  full  self-consciousness, 
but  which  was  feeling  its  way  to  power,  and  was  resisting  on  the 
one  hand  the  pressure  of  the  landed  aristocracy  and  on  the  other 
the  claims  of  the  landless  proletariat.  Thus  the  free  cities  of 
North  Germany  accepted  Luther  and  his  form  of  the  Reforma- 
tion almost  without  any  struggle,  and  Lubeck,  Hamburg, 
Bremen,  and  most  of  the  northern  trading  centres  became  the 
unwavering  friends  of  the  new  movement.  In  part  this  came 
from  the  new  ethical  revolt  against  Roman  rapacity  and  un- 
clcanncss  (Tetzel  and  his  indulgences),  in  part  the  new  national 


THE   ETHICS   OF  LUTHER 


473 


feeling  was  beginning  to  stir  men.  And  Luther  in  all  his  some- 
what coarse  strength  was  the  very  incarnation  of  this  new 
Germanism.  He  voiced  its  eagerness  for  knowledge,  for  inde- 
pendence, for  action,  and  self-development.  Some  of  Luther's 
writings  reached  a  circulation  of  four  thousand  in  a  few  weeks, 
which  meant  thousands  of  hearers  and  readers,  for  the  printed 
page  went  from  hand  to  hand  and  was  read  to  eager  groups. 
He  took  the  side  of  the  Germanic  home  group  against  the  ascetic 
monkish  individualism.  He  incarnated  the  new  longing  for 
life  as  a  good  in  itself  and  for  self-expression  as  having  its  own 
peculiar  value.  He  voiced  with  fierce  directness  the  northern 
revolt  against  powerful  oppression.  We  hear,  surely,  something 
familiar  in  such  words  as  these:  "Yes,  we  might  well  let  the 
little  thieves  alone,  if  we  could  stop  the  great  powerful  arch- 
thieves,  with  whom  the  princes  and  rulers  combine,  and  who 
daily  plunder  not  a  town  or  two,  but  all  Germany.  Yes,  what 
would  happen  to  the  head  and  chief  protector  of  all  thieves,  the 
papal  power  at  Rome,  with  all  that  belongs  to  it,  and  which  has 
robbed  us  of  our  material  goods  and  keeps  them  until  now? 
In  fact  it  is  the  world's  way  that  he  who  can  steal  and  plunder 
openly  goes  safe  and  free,  unpunished  by  any  one,  and  expecting 
to  be  honored;  but  little  secret  thieves,  though  they  may  have  only 
once  done  wrong,  must  bear  the  shame  and  penalty."  ^  Thus 
he  stood  out  as  the  greatest  figure  of  an  age  in  which  many  shone. 
The  difference  between  Roman  Catholicism  and  the  Teutonic 
religious  movement  which  we  call  the  Reformation  was  not 
even  mainly  about  authority.  All  at  that  time  moved,  or  thought 
they  moved,  in  the  atmosphere  of  authority.  Nor  was  it  even 
mainly  between  the  authority  of  church  versus  the  Bible.  The 
reformers  all  acknowledged  the  authority  of  a  church,  and 
Rome  might  easily  have  compromised  that  quarrel.  Nor  was 
it  on  such  abstractions  as  "justification  by  faith"  or  "transub- 
stantiation."  Here  again  the  Council  of  Trent  leaves  litde  to 
be  desired.  The  real  difference  was  a  different  estimate  of  the 
really  pious  life.     And  Luther  was  the  incarnation  in  actual 

*  "  Greater  Catechism,"  the  Seventh  Commandment. 


474  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

feeling  and  conduct  of  the  Reformation  type.  Rome  could 
adjust  herself  to  the  semi-paganism  of  humanism  (Erasmus),  but 
Luther  she  could  not  away  with.  The  ethical  freedom  of  son- 
I  ship  with  God,  the  moral  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  man 
\^  brooked  in  the  last  analysis  no  earthly  over-lordship.  It  was  not 
so  much  a  matter  of  intellectual  antithesis  as  of  profound  and 
far-reaching  spiritual  intuition  that  separated  once  and  for  all 
the  really  Protestant  forces  from  Rome  and  the  papacy. 

The  very  excesses  of  the  Reformation  which  have  been  glossed 
over  far  too  much  by  Protestant  historians  were  the  almost 
inevitable  outcome  of  the  new  liberty.*  For  the  "laity"  in  the 
Roman  communion  there  are  no  adult  years.  All  are  "children 
of  mother  church,"  with  prescribed  reading  and  father-confessors 
to  the  end.  As  this  authority  broke  down  all  manner  of  evils 
showed  themselves.  The  records  of  Reformation  society  are 
exceedingly  dark  with  violence,  drunkenness,  sexual  excesses, 
and  low  forms  of  vice.  It  is  impossible  to  give  comparative 
estimates  of  any  value,  but  the  indications  are  that  in  the  break- 
ing up  of  feudalism  the  ethical  standard  to  which  it  had  contrib- 
uted also  gave  way.  This  decay  is  not,  of  course,  wholly  the 
result  of  the  Reformation  freedom,  because  the  Council  of 
Constance  witnesses  abundantly  to  decay,  or  at  least  to  the  belief 
in  decay,  before  the  Reformation.  It  was  one  of  the  conditions 
of  the  times  out  of  which  the  Reformation  sprang,  in  part,  no 
doubt,  as  reaction  against  it.  It  is  not  fair  even  to  ascribe  the 
horrors  of  the  Anabaptist  revolts  or  the  Thirty  Years  War  to 
religious  bigotry.  They  were  in  large  part  the  results  of  the 
economic  clash  between  the  new  merchant  class  with  its  com- 
mercial morality  and  the  old  land-owning  aristocracy  with  other 
ideals  in  their  struggle  still  going  on  in  Europe  for  the  control 
of  the  productive  forces  of  life. 
The  ethics  of  Luther  have  the  divided  character  of  the  period. 

'  Luther  never  blinked  the  facts  and  perfectly  understood  the  underlying 
reasons.  Cj.  his  preface  to  the  "Little  Catechism."  He  himself  was  so  dis- 
turbed by  the  dreadful  disorders  at  Wittenberg  that  the  last  days  of  his  life  were 
seriously  embittered,  and  he  even  threatened  to  leave  his  beloved  universitv. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  LUTHER  475 

Nor  is  it  easy  to  do  justice  to  their  influence  when  they  are  re-f 
garded  simply  as  systems  of  thought.  Luther  was  emphatically 
a  man  of  action  who  often  justified  his  right  instincts  by  wrong 
reasons.  His  life  was  a  constant  struggle  between  the  shadows 
of  a  mind  overcast  by  temperament,  by  training,  and  probably 
by  improper  diet  in  fasting  when  he  should  have  been  nourished 
and  nourished  when  he  should  have  been  fasting.  His  ethics, 
like  his  theology,  retain  a  mediaeval  character  to  the  end. 

In  order  to  bring  out  the  contrast  in  Luther,  which  lies  on  the 
surface,  and  which  is  neither  a  chronological  matter  nor  yet  a 
conscious  accommodation,  it  may  be  well  to  treat  of  his  ethics 
under  the  three  heads:  his  Protestant  ethics  and  his  scholastic 
or  Roman  Catholic  ethics  and  his  practical  ethics. 

I.      THE   PROTESTANT   ELEMENTS   EST   LUTHER's   ETHICS 

I.  Luther  sounded  the  key-note  of  every  real  ethical  advance 
in  his  defence  of  the  moral  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  man.  He 
and  Tyndal,  alone  of  all  the  reformers,  grasped  firmly  this 
supreme  truth.  He  sets  it  forth  best  and  most  boldly  in  his 
wonderful  treatise,  "Von  der  Freiheit  eines  Christenmenschen."  * 
*'  A  Christian  man  is  a  free  master  over  all  things,  and  no  man's 
subject  (untertan).  A  Christian  man  is  a  useful  servant  (ein 
dienstbar  knecht)  of  all  things  and  every  one's  subject;^  this 
freedom  he  bases  upon  love.^  And  for  Luther  at  his  best  love 
is  the  dynamic  for  all  good  works.^  This  power  is  the  union  of 
the  Christian  man's  spiritual  life  with  Christ  in  which  union 
Christ  becomes  sin  for  us  and  we  share  his  righteousness.^ 
Just  as  in  Paul,  so  in  Luther  it  is  indeed  possible  to  interpret 
this  mystic  union  with  Christ  metaphysically,  i.  e.,  as  an  actual 

*  Erianger  edition,  vol.  XXVII,  p.  173. 

2  Erianger  edition,  Vol.  XXVII,  p.  176. 

'  "Lieb  aber  die  ist  dienstbar  und  unterthan  dem,  das  sie  lieb  hat"  (loc.  ci't.). 

*  "  Aus  dem  Allen  folget,  der  Beschluss,  dass  ein  Christen  mensch  lebt  nit  ihra 
selb,  sondern  in  Christo  und  seinem  Nahsten:  in  Christo  durch  den  glauben;  im 
Nahsten  durch  die  Liebe"  (loc.  cit.). 

*  "Hie  hebt  sich  nu  der  frohliche  Wechsel  und  Strait,"  Erianger  edition,  vol, 
XXVII,  p.  183. 


476  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

losing  of  our  being  in  the  being  of  Christ.  At  the  same  time 
the  far  simpler  explanation  is  that  both  Paul  and  Luther  were 
thinking  along  the  line  of  their  main  interest,  and  treat  of  the 
union  as  really  ethical.  It  is  identity  of  life's  purpose  and  aim 
that  forms  the  basis  of  the  union.  The  image  of  the  bridegroom 
is  not  conclusive  in  either  case,  but  it  is  perfectly  evident  that 
Luther's  mind  was  intensely  practical,^  and  even  the  attraction 
that  mysticism  had  for  him  was  its  ethical  content  rather  than 
its  metaphysical  basis.^  Luther  was  the  child  of  a  tremendous 
spiritual  reaction  against  the  false  and  weary  legalism  of  the 
monkish  view  of  life.  At  every  point  one  is  compelled  to  recog- 
nize this  reaction  as  the  explanation  of  both  good  and  evil  in 
Luther's  ethical  system.  He  had  actually  found  God  as  his 
Father  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  from  that  on  all  that  is  best  in  his 
thinking  grows  out  of  this  sense  of  new  relationship  to  God. 
"We  should  fear  love  and  trust  God  above  all  else."  '  And  all 
obedience  is  as  child  to  father,  who  "entices  us  to  trust  him."  * 
With  Luther  this  was  the  actual  power  that  made  in  him  for 
righteousness.  What  the  law  and  the  church  and  the  Pope 
could  not  do,  this  vision  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  actually  did  for 
him.  Hence  he  became  a  Protestant  against  all  authority  save 
as  it  made  its  appeal  directly  to  his  soul. 

2.  Faith  is  thus  for  Luther  a  liberating  principle.  It  sets 
us  free  to  know  and  do  the  truth.^    And  although  he  is  not  always 

'"Die  Theologia  stehet  im  Brauch  und  Ubung  nicht  im  Speculiren  und 
Gottes  Sachen  nach  denken  nach  dcr  Vernunft.  ...  In  sutnma:  ein  iglichc 
Kunst,  beide  im  Haus-  und  Weltrcgiment,  so  nur  mit  Speculiren  umbgchit  und 
nicht  ins  Werk  bracht  wird,  ist  verlorn  und  taug  nichts,"  Tischreden,  Erlanger 
edition,  vol.  LIX,  p.  182. 

*C/.  "Vorreden  zu  dem  Biichlein;  Ein  dcutsch  Theologia,"  Erlanger  edition, 
vol.  LXIII,  p.  235  #. 

'"Wir  sollcn  Gott  iiber  alle  Ding  fiirchten,  lieben  und  vertrauen,"  "Der 
Kleinc  Kat.,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXI,  p.  10. 

*  "Gott  will  uns  damit  locken,  dass  wir  Gliiuben  sollcn,  er  sie  unscr  rechter 
Vatcr,  und  wir  seine  rechte  Kinder;  auf  das  wir  getrost  und  mit  aller  Zuversicht 
ihn  bitten  sollen,  wie  die  lieben  Kinder  ihren  lieben  Vater,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol. 
XXI,  p.  14. 

'  "  Aber  Glaube  ist  ein  gottlich  Werk  in  uns,  das  uns  wandelt  und  ncu  gebiert 
aus  Gott   (John   i  :  13)   und   tddet  den  altcn  Adam,  machet   uns  ganz  ander 


THE  ETHICS  OF  LUTHER  477 

true  to  this  principle,  yet  he  asserts  it  often  enough  to  show  that 
it  was  no  accident.  The  spiritual  man  is  lord  of  the  Sabbath. 
"We  are  lords  of  the  Sabbath,  and  we  should  insist  that  we 
are  lords  of  the  Sabbath  and  other  days  and  places,  and  do  not 
place  particular  holiness  or  divine  service  in  them  as  do  the  Jews 
and  papists."  "The  church  is  not  a  particular  church,  as  if 
it  were  better  than  other  places  where  one  preaches  God's 
word."  ' 

Our  lordship  is  only  limited  by  love,  and  the  happy  conven- 
iences of  life — order,  etc.  But  the  sum  and  substance  of  all 
preaching  is  the  freedom  of  faith  and  love.  "Love  is  our 
captain."  ^  This  freedom  he  taught  so  that  from  time  to  time 
he  has  to  defend  himself  against  antinomianism,^  and  on  the 
other  hand  attacks  Carlstadt  for  infringing  liberty  by  "  forbid- 
ding," as  the  Pope  has  infringed  it  by  commanding.^ 

3.  Thus  Luther  has  a  firm  basis  for  his  ethics  in  the  freedom 
of  the  loving  life,  and  recognizes  frankly  that  faith  cannot  be 
forced.^    It  cannot  even  be  forced  by  eternal  pains  and  penalty. 
Luther  rejects  in  so  many  words  all  hedonistic  ethics,  even  with  7 
heaven  and  hell  as  the  basis,  if  the  works  are  done  to  gain  heaven  I 

Menschen,  von  Herzen,  Muth,  Sinn  und  alien  Kraften,  und  bringet  den  heiligen 
Geist  mit  sich.  O  es  ist  ein  lebendig,  schaftig,  thahig,  machtig  Ding  umb  den 
glauben,  dass  ummoglich  ist,  dass  er  nicht  ohn  unterlass  sollte  Guts  wirken," 
"Vorrede  auf  die  Epistle  S.  Paul  an  die  Romer"  (1522),  Erlanger  edition,  vol. 
LXIII,  p.  124. 

1  "Ein  weihungs  predigt  uber  Luc.  14  :  i-ii  "  (1544),  Erlanger  edition,  vol. 
XVII,  pp.  239-252. 

2  Cf.  the  eight  "Fast  Sermons,"  Weimar  edition,  X,  3,  pp.  1-64. 

'  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LV,  p.  115;   vol.  LI,  p.  415,  and  many  passages. 

*  "Aber  es  hat  hierinnen  mit  dem  Rottengeist  eine  andere  Nasen,  denn  mit 
dem  Papst,  sie  brechen  beide  die  christliche  Freiheit,  und  sind  beide  Wider- 
christisch;  aber  der  Papst  thuts  durch  Gebot,  D.  Carlstadt  durch  Verbot;  der 
Papst  heisst  thun,  D.  Carlstadt  heisst  lassen;  wie  denn  die  christliche  Freiheit 
durch  die  zweierlei  gebrochen  wird,  wenn  man  gebeut,  zwingt  und  dringt  zu 
thun,  das  doch  nicht  Geboten  noch  erzwungen  ist  von  Gott,"  "Wider  die 
himmelischen  Propheten"   (1524-1525),  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXIX,  p.  189. 

'  "Summa  Summarum  predigen  will  ichs,  sagen  will  ichs,  schreiben  will  ichs, 
aber  zwingen  und  dringen  mit  Gewalt  will  ich  niemand;  denn  der  Glaube  sei 
willig  und  ungenotigt  sein,  und  ohne  Zwang  angenommen  werden,"  Weimar 
edition,  vol.  X,  3,  p.  18  (Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXVIII,  p.  219). 


478  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

or  evade  hell.'  All  good  works  must  spring  from  an  inner 
principle.  It  cannot  be  said  that  he  really  built  his  ethics  con- 
sciously in  opposition  to  a  refined  eudaemonism  ("  God  rewards 
with  heaven,  etc.,  etc.),  but  he  prepared  the  way. 

We  serve  God  in  serving  our  neighbor,  and  by  the  loving  life 
make  heaven  on  earth,  and  by  the  loveless  life  make  earth  a 
helL^* 

4.  Intensely  "other-worldly"  as  Luther  was  in  his  main 
interest,  he  nevertheless  felt  keenly  the  wrongs  done  to  Germany 
by  Rome,  and  he  did  more  than  any  man  of  his  generation  to 
kindle  the  fire  of  national  enthusiasm  and  foster  national  self- 
respect.  Luther  constantly  denounced  the  rapacity  of  Rome, 
and  urged  the  rulers  of  Germany  to  sweeping  social  reforms. 
He  reveals  not  only  a  keen  interest  in  the  political  and  social 
struggle  of  his  day,  but  also  far-seeing  vision  as  to  its  significance. 
Thus  although  in  theory  Luther  remained  entangled  in  the 
other-worldliness  of  the  monastic  conception  of  life,  he  in  point 
of  fact  was  the  foremost  herald  of  the  new  message,  that  is  yet 
as  old  as  the  Old  Testament  prophets  of  the  eighth  century,  and 
the  prayer  of  Our  Lord,  that  God's  kingdom  is  to  come  to  this 
earth  and  that  here  his  perfect  reign  is  to  be  made  clear  in  the 
moral  and  political  worlds. 

5.  Most  especially  useful  was  Luther's  defence  of  a  non- 
ascetic  wholesome  type  of  ethics.  Scholastic  Romanism  taught 
that  the  highest  perfection  was  only  open  to  the  priest,  monk,  or 
nun.  Luther  insisted  with  anxious  and  repeated  care  upon  the 
sanctity  of  the  daily  task.'  The  housemaid  was  engaged  in  as 
sacred  a  task  in  properly  cleaning  a  room  as  the  preacher  in  the 

•  "Predigt  von  den  gutcn  Werken"  (1520),  Erianger  edition,  vol.  XX,  p.  218. 

*"Denn  gleich  wie  du  dir  hie  ein  Paradies  und  Himmel  machcn  konntest, 
wenn  du  deinem  Nahesten  dienetest  (denn  dassclhige  heizt  Gott  im  Himmel 
gedicnct):  also,  wenn  du  deinem  Nahesten  nicht  dienest,  machcst  du  dir  selbst 
eine  Holle  auf  Erden;  denn  du  dienest  dem  Tcufel,  der  die  Holle  gehoret." 
"Predigt"  (1533),  Erianger  edition,  vol.  V,  p.  138. 

'  Erianger  edition,  vol.  II,  pp.  133,  137,  139;  vol.  IV,  300,  343,  344;  vol.  V, 
pp.  57,  84,  87,  104,  137,  148,  160-162;  vol.  VII,  p.  loi;  vol.  X,  pp.  160,  272,  233, 
339;   vol.  XXI,  pp.  60,  80,  etc.,  etc. 


THE    ETHICS    OF   LUTHER  479 

pulpit  or  the  priest  at  the  altar.  The  poor  housemaid  can  say 
when  cooking  for  her  master  and  mistress  that  she  is  cooking 
for  God  in  heaven. 

This  was  to  that  day  a  new  point  of  view  and  struck  at  the 
very  roots  of  the  Roman  theory  of  a  twofold  standard  of  holi- 
ness, and  in  its  logic  swept  away  all  real  distinctions  between 
civil  and  religious  virtues.* 

Quite  consistently,  therefore,  Luther  taught  the  priesthood  of 
all  believers.  It  was  only  a  matter  of  order  and  opportunity 
that  a  clergy  should  exist  at  all.^  The  distinct  type  of  piety 
taught  was  throughout  non-ascetic.  Thus  Luther  not  only  him- 
self married,  but  took  strong  and  rational  ground  on  the  subject 
of  celibacy  and  the  married  state.^  He  became  the  incarnation 
of  the  wholesome  Teutonic  feeling  for  the  family  group  as 
against  the  ascetic  oriental  intrusion,  and  he  rightly  passed  over 
the  fathers  of  church  history  and  turned  to  the  equally  sane  and 
rational  traditions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  for  his 
authority  as  over  against  the  Hellenized  traditions  of  early 
Christianity. 

6.  It  cannot  be  said  that  Luther  freed  himself  from  sacra- 
mental magic  and  from  mechanical  views  of  grace.  But  he  is 
nevertheless  the  real  father  of  an  ethical  estimate  of  grace.  The 
character  of  grace  is  the  ethical  imperative  within  man's  soul. 
Luther  at  his  best  rises  to  wonderful  heights  when  dealing  with 
grace  as  the  gift  of  ethical  freedom  from  law  that  we  may  be 
free  to  righteousness.*     So  that  grace  is  strength  for  the  vitally 

'  Luther  is  not  self-consistent  nor  thorough-going  even  here.  "Tres  enim 
hierarchies  ordinavit  Deus  contra  diabolum,  Scilicet  oeconomiam,  politicum, 
ecclesiam,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  IV,  394,  and  of  these  house  and  state  are 
"worldly"  and  "the  church"  is  "spiritual." 

*  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XI,  304,  318,  and  many  passages. 

'  "Hochzeit  predigt  iiber  Heb.  13  :  4"  (first  print,  1531,  and  in  other  version, 
1536),  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XVIII,  pp.  269-302;  Tischreden,  Erlanger  edition, 
vol.  LXI,  pp.  164-304;  two  sermons,  "Vom  Ehestande"  and  "Vom  Ehelichen 
Leben,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XX,  pp.  45-89,  and  many  other  passages. 

*  "  Denn  in  dem  Stand  und  Wesen,  dadurch  wir  Christen  werden,  da  horen 
auf  unsere  und  aller  menschen  Werke;  also  auch  alle  Gesetze.  Denn  wo  kein 
Werk  ist,  da  kann  auch  kein  Gesetz  seyn,  das  das  Werk  fordere,  und  spreche: 


48o  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

righteous  life,  and  ethics  are  logically  the  test  of  indwelling 
grace.'  It  is  with  this  ethical  character  of  grace  that  Luther's 
doctrine  of  determinism  is  linked.  It  is  the  religious  necessity 
for  surety  against  the  ultimate  victory  of  sin  and  death  that  makes 
all,  or  nearly  all,  great  religious  leaders  determinists — Paul, 
Augustine,  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox,  and  Cromwell.  Exacdy  as 
to-day,  socialism  turns  to  economic  determinism  from  religious 
rather  than  really  scientific  necessity,  so  religious  reformers 
found  in  determinism  a  refuge  from  life's  confessed  uncertainties. 
Of  course  one  may  believe  that  it  were  better  to  rest  the  matter 
upon  an  ultimate  faith  in  our  estimate  of  God  and  the  world 
than  on  metaphysical  and  economic  speculations  which  are 
always  subject  to  correction  and  revision  on  the  one  hand  and 
abuse  on  the  other.  Yet  the  hunger  of  the  human  heart  for  even 
bad  reasons  for  its  fundamental  faiths  has  also  its  message  to  us. 
It  may  seem  a  thousand  pities  that  the  work  of  the  Reformation 
was  rent  by  the  sad  jumble  of  metaphysics  and  faith  involved 
in  Luther's  controversy  with  Erasmus.^  At  the  same  time  the 
habit  of  mind  was  such  that  it  is  hard  to  see  how  Luther  could 
have  taken  any  other  position.  And  after  all  the  modern 
scientist,  socialist,  or  religious  thinker  is  a  determinist  on  exactly 
the  same  ground.  They  all  need,  that  is  to  say,  the  hypothesis 
in  the  work  they  have  in  hand,  and  all  or  nearly  all  maintain 
their  position  with  quite  as  bad  reasoning  as  Luther. 

7.  It  is  thus  not  too  much  to  say  that  Luther  laid  the  foun- 
dation securely  for  a  modern  Christian  ethics  yet  to  be  worked 
out  in  the  living,  thinking,  and  feeling  of  a  really  Christian 
community,  in  which  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  man  will  be 
no  one-sided  anarchistic  individualism,  but  the  finding  of  the 
highest  individuality  in  a  social  world  of  mutual  service.  Luther 
also  prepared  the  way  for  that  modern  psychological  subjectiv- 

Das  sollst  du  thun,  das  sollst  du  lassen;  sondern  wir  sind  schlechts  durch  die 
Taufe  und  Christi  Blut  frei  von  alten  Werken,aus  lauter  Gnade  und  Barmherzig- 
kcit  gcrecht,  und  leben  auch  allein  derselben  vor  Gott."  "Zweit  Predigt  am 
dritten  Sonntage  nach  Trinitatis."     Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XIII,  p.  35. 

'  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XIII,  289  if.,  and  many  passages. 

'  "Dc  servo  arbitrio,"  1525,  Erlanger  edition,  "Opera  Lat,"  vol.  \'II,  p.  113. 


THE    ETHICS   OF   LUTHER  481 

ism  formulated  by  Kant  in  which  the  ultimate  ethical  authority- 
is  found  in  the  human  soul.  He  also  saw  more  or  less  clearly 
that  this  subjectivism  becomes  moral  insanity  if  separated  from 
the  traditional  historical  community  in  which  it  can  alone  have 
its  healthy  growth.  Church  history  became  a  necessity  in  a 
new  sense  on  the  basis  of  Luther's  teaching,  for  the  spiritual  man 
must  inform  himself  about  the  ethical  experiences  of  the  past 
in  order  that  he  may  meet  in  his  spiritual  freedom  the  world  he 
must  subdue,  and  meet  it  with  intelligence  and  wisdom.  Thus 
also  Luther  stripped  faith  of  its  artificial  character  as  a  holding 
of  opinions  on  the  basis  of  external  authority.  Faith  was  for 
Luther,  as  for  Paul,  a  dynamic  for  righteousness,  an  inward 
power  and  not  an  external  opinion.  Sacramental  magic  logic- 
ally falls  away,  for  union  with  the  purpose  of  God  is  not  spas- 
modic magic  but  a  definite  and  permanent  trend  of  the  soul's 
life.  Magic  and  ethics  are  sworn  enemies,  and  in  spite  of  all ' 
appearances  to  the  contrary  Luther  is  on  the  side  of  ethics.       J 

And  lastly,  in  spite  of  temporary  depressions  and  profound 
despondency  at  times,  Luther  awoke  Protestantism  to  a  new 
and  profounder  joy  in  life  than  even  humanism  could  inspire. 
His  faith  that  God's  will  for  mankind  was  ethical  perfection, 
joy,  peace,  and  love,  and  that  God's  will  was  the  predestined 
outcome  of  life's  struggle,  nerved  men  for  the  new  social  organ- 
ization which  was  yet  to  cost  such  untold  sufferings  and  which 
stretches  itself  from  the  Thirty  Years'  War  (161 8-1648)  on  into 
our  own  day. 


ii.    the   scholastic   and   roman   catholic   elements   in 
Luther's  ethics 

I.  It  is  a  peculiarly  ungrateful  task  to  have  to  point  out  the 
weaknesses  and  failures  in  the  work  of  the  heroic  figures  who 
have  fought  in  the  forefront  for  an  ethical  life.  More  particu- 
larly ungrateful  is  it  for  the  Protestant  historian  to  have  to 
acknowledge  how  imperfect  was  often  the  criticism  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  position.     Both  Luther  and  Calvin  carried  over  into 


482  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

historic  Protestantism  many  elements  which  have  been  a  serious 
hindrance  in  our  struggle  with  the  principle  of  authority  on 
which  the  papal  claims  rest.  It  is  easy  for  us  to  see  these  things 
now.  On  the  other  hand  we  must  ever  remember  that  to  some 
degree  Luther's  very  usefulness  depended  upon  his  honestly 
sharing  some  of  the  narrowness  and  superstition  of  his  genera- 
tion. Luther  was  intensely  human  and  intensely  Teutonic. 
His  genius  summed  up  his  age  and  gave,  as  it  were,  reality  to 
its  ideals.  It  was  impossible  for  the  really  religious  spirit  of 
that  day  to  wholly  escape  the  bondage  to  the  letter.  Luther's 
position  was,  of  course,  wholly  untenable.  On  the  one  hand 
he  could  freely  reject  whole  books  of  the  Bible  on  the  strength 
of  his  own  subjective  impression,  as  when  he  called  James  "a 
strawy  (strohern)  book,"  ^  and  rejected  Revelation  because  it 
did  not  seem  to  him  to  have  the  mind  of  Christ,^  and  on  the 
other  hand  he  could  stake  the  Reformation  unity  on  his  interpre- 
tation of  "Hoc  est  meum  corpus."  Luther  in  reality  supremely 
trusted  the  subjective  impression,  and  felt  that  so  far  as  we  can 
hear  God  at  all  it  must  be  in  such  final  personal  impressions. 
I  The  next  step,  namely,  that  though  we  know  these  impressions 
are  not  infallible  we  yet  must  trust  them  as  final,  Luther  did  not, 
and  in  his  age  could  not,  take.  He,  with  all  the  other  reformers, 
sought  refuge  from  the  false  infallibilities  of  the  church  in  an 
equally  false  claim  of  infallibility  for  the  letter  of  Scripture.  It 
is  vain  for  the  modern  theologian  to  gloss  Luther's  maintenance 
of  the  infallibility  of  the  letter  of  Scripture.  The  case  is  all 
too  clear.  In  1520  he  thought  the  universal  church  could  not 
err.^  But  as  he  was  pushed  further  and  further  back  he  took  at 
last  refuge  in  the  word  of  God.  So  far  as  the  writer  knows, 
the  world  infallibility  (unfehlbarkeit,  infaflibilitatis)  occurs  nei- 
ther in  the  Latin  nor  German  works  of  Luther.     But  the  idea 

'  "Vorrcdcn,"  Erianger  edition,  vol.  LXIII,  p.  115. 

^  Erianger  edition,  vol.  LXIII,  p.  169. 

'  "Und  das  thun  sie  darumb,  dcnn  diewcil  sic  wisscn,  und  wahr  ist,  dass  die 
gemcinc  christlichc  Kirchc  (das  ist,  allc  christen  siimptlich  in  aller  Welt)  nit 
irren  mag,  etc. "  "  Wider  die  Bullc  des  Endchrists,"  Erianger  edition,  vol.  XXI\', 
p.  36. 


THE    ETHICS    OF   LUTHER  483 

is  there  in  a  thousand  passages,  where  the  word  of  God  is 
identified  with  the  text  of  Scripture  as  we  have  it/  And  again 
and  again  Luther  warns  against  setting  up  reason  against  the 
letter  of  Scripture.^  He  was  ready  at  any  time  to  struggle  with 
what  became  rationalism.  Nor  did  he  clearly  see  the  strength 
and  the  weakness  of  the  Roman  Catholic  position.  What  may 
now  be  regarded  as  the  assured  gain  of  Protestant  thinking — 
namely,  faith  in  human  intellectual  processes  as  essentially 
divine — would  in  all  probability  have  been  as  much  a  stumbling- 
block  to  Luther  as  it  is  to  that  Protestantism  still  under  the  bann 
of  Roman  Catholic  thinking.  To  have  said  to  Luther,  "Ye 
believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  the  reality  of  an  ethical  humanity," 
would  have  startled  and  aroused  him,  no  doubt,  because  he  was 
still  hampered  by  Augustinianism  with  its  heathen  estimate  of 
the  relationship  between  God  and  man. 

2.  In  like  manner  Luther  did  not  widely  differ  from  his 
scholastic  opponents  in  his  conception  of  the  church.  In  his 
theory  he  had  but  litde  quarrel  with  them.  Luther  defines  it 
as  a  holy  communion  of  saints,^  an  ecclesia  Christiana  with  a 
twofold  nature,  an  invisible  spiritual  Christianity,  and  also  an 
outward  natural  Christianity,  which,  however,  are  related  to 
one  another  as  body  and  spirit,  and  must  not  be  separated.  Or, 
as  the  apostle  says,  an  inner  and  an  outer  man.^  This  church 
holds  the  keys,  and  has  the  power  of  spiritual  bann  in  its  proc- 

*  C/.  "Vorrede  zum  Alten  Testament,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LXIII,  pp. 
7-25,  (1523);   Tischreden,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LVII,  pp.  1-107,  etc.,  etc. 

*  "Kirchenpostile  iiber  Matt.  20  :  20-23,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XV,  pp. 
419-427,  and  many  passages. 

^  C/.  "Von  den  Conciliis  und  Kirchen,"  1539,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXV, 
pp.  219-388.  The  whole  tract  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  as  both  in  time  and 
purpose  marking  his  maturest  thought. 

■•  "  Drumb,  und  mehres  Vorstands  und  dcr  Kurz  willen  wollen  wir  die  zuo 
Kirchen  nennen  mit  unterscheidlichen  Namen.  Die  erste,  die  naturlich,  grund- 
lich,  wesentlich  und  wahrhaftig  ist,  wollen  wir  heissen  ein  geistliche,  innerliche 
Christenheit.  Die  andere,  die  gemacht  und  ausserlich  ist,  wollen  wir  heissen 
ein  leibliche  ausserlich  Christenheit:  nit  dass  wir  sie  von  einander  scheiden 
wollen;  sondern  sogleich,  als,  wenn  ich  von  einem  Menschen  rede,  und  ihn 
nach  der  Seelen  ein  geistlichen,"  etc.  "Vondem  Papstthum  zu  Rom,"  1520, 
Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXVII,  p.  102. 


484  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

lamation/  although  its  limits  are  too  sharply  defined.^  This 
church  is  also  a  myskrium  mystically  linked  with  Christ  and 
sharing  his  experiences.^  It  is  likened  to  an  ark  of  safety 
amidst  the  destructions  of  life/  in  which  are  clean  and  unclean, 
but  all  outside  get  drowned  (denn  die  andern  die  es  nicht 
horen,  sind  nicht  im  Kasten,  sondern  ersaufen  im  Wasser). 
Hence  it  is  enormously  important  to  know  which  is  the  right 
church.  For  there  is  no  forgiveness  without,^  and  we  must 
distinguish  between  the  true  church  and  the  devil's  exact  imita- 
tion of  it.°  Hence  the  notes  of  the  true  church  are  to  be  found 
in  the  preaching  of  the  Word  and  the  right  administration  of  the 
sacraments.'  And  when  the  question  is  raised  about  what  is  the 
preaching  of  the  Word,  the  answer  is  again  in  terms  of  an  intel- 
lectual system.  And  this  teaching  is  of  more  importance  than 
life,'  because  it  is  at  the  root  of  life.  The  church  is  then  to 
maintain  the  true  tradition,  and  in  her  the  Bible  (Schrift)  and 
not  reason  is  to  control,®  and  when  the  whole  church  has  taught 
anything  it  is  dangerous  to  reject  it."  So  Luther  is  led  to  take 
over  the  truth  of  all  the  ages  in  establishing  the  true  church  so 
that  in  it  all  may  find  safety." 

With  Luther  himself  the  message  for  which  the  church  stood 
was  so  much  more  than  any  ecclesiastical  organization,  and  in 
the  overwhelming  confusion  of  the  day  the  church  as  an  organ iza- 

'  "Sermon  am  Tage  St.  Petri  und  Pauli,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XV,  p.  395. 
^  "Tischreden,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LIX,  p.  132;    cf.,  also,  the  collected 
sayings  of  Luther  on  the  church  in  the  same  volume,  pp.  131-180. 
^  Loc.  cit.,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXV,  374. 

*  "Predigt  iibcr  das  Sechste  Capitel  des  ersten  Buch  Moses,"  Erlanger  edition, 
vol.  XXXIII,  p.  175. 

'  "Von  der  Beichte,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXVII,  p.  351. 
"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXV,  p.  380;    vol.  XXXI,  p.  339,  etc. 
^  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXV,  p.  362;    vol.  XXVII,  p.  108;    vol.  XL,  p.  161; 
vol.  XLIV,  p.  253;  vol.  XLV,  p.  103;  vol.  LXII,  p.  46,  and  many  other  passages. 

*  "Die  drei  Symbola,"  1538,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXIII,  pp.  252-254;  also 
loc.  cit.,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXV,  p.  241. 

*  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XVIII,  p.  117. 
'»  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LIV,  p.  288. 

"  C/.  most  interesting  passage  in  1541,"  Wider  Hans  Wurst,"  Erlanger  edition, 
vol.  XXVI,  pp.  1-75. 


THE    ETHICS    OF   LUTHER  485 

tion  counted  for  so  little,  that  the  danger  of  a  dead  ecclesiasticism, 
precious  as  the  symbol  of  various  class  privileges,  and  over- 
burdened with  all  sorts  of  theological  opinions,  was  hardly  real. 
Yet  just  such  an  ecclesiasticism  can,  alas,  find  in  Luther  all  that 
it  needs  to  defend  its  position  and  to  identify  itself  with  the 
permanent  and  necessary  guardianship  of  the  truth.  It  is  vain, 
moreover,  to  charge,  as  some  have  done,  the  work  of  establish- 
ing such  a  theory  upon  Melanchthon.  The  ecclesiasticism  of 
Luther  belongs  to  all  stages  of  his  thought,  and  is  quite  as  pro- 
found and  self-conscious  as  that  of  Melanchthon.  At  this  point 
Luther  is  even  more  Roman  Catholic  and  scholastic  than 
Calvin.  For  in  point  of  fact  reformed  theology  has  valued  the 
church  rather  as  the  organ  for  discipline  than  as  the  organ  for 
the  discovery  of  truth.  Augustine's  acceptance  of  the  church 
as  the  guarantee  of  truth  has  never  been  seriously  taken  as  a 
point  of  departure  in  reformed  theology,  not  even  in  the  highest 
church  Presbyterianism,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  theology  of 
Breckinridge.  And  this  for  the  very  reason  that  reformed 
theology  has  so  emphasized  the  Scriptures  as  the  only  source  of 
truth.  The  church  is  only  receptive  of  the  truth,  and  not 
either  its  guarantor  nor  even  its  final  interpreter.  Luther's 
theoretical  ecclesiasticism  conflicts  with  the  teaching  of  the 
moral  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  man.  But  Luther  was  most 
glorious  in  his  inconsistency. 

3.  The  world  of  Luther  remained  in  an  astonishing  way 
the  world  of  scholasticism  with  its  all-pervading  dualism.  The 
devil  plays  a  large  part  in  Luther's  thought  and  teaching.  He 
struggles  with  our  "guardian  angels,"  who  protect  us,*  and  who 
are  ever  on  the  watch  to  guard  us  from  harm.^    The  devil  is  the 

'  "Erste  Predigt  von  den  Engeln,"  1532,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  VI,  pp.  397-407. 

'  "Denn  as  ist  ein  stetiger  Kampf  zwischen  Engeln  und  Teufeln.  Der  Teufel 
wollte  gern  alles  Ungliick  anrichten;  wie  wir  taglich  sehen  und  erfahren,  dass 
mancher  ein  Bein  bricht  auf  ebener  Erde;  mancher  fallt  einen  schweren  gefahr- 
lichen  Fall  die  Treppen  oder  Steigen  ab,  dass  er  selbst  nicht  weiss,  wie  ihm 
geschehen  ist.  Solches  und  anders  wiirde  der  Teufel  wohl  immerdar  anrichten, 
wenn  Gott  durch  die  lieben  Engel  nicht  wehrete,"  loc.  cit.,  Erlanger  edition,  vol. 
I.  P-  399- 


486  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

real  present  ruler  of  this  world,  and  this  world  is  his  principality 
still,  even  though  Christ  has  signally  defeated  him  once/  And 
hence,  as  to  a  sort  of  magic  we  must  go  to  the  sacrament.  The 
coarse  superstitions  of  his  age  Luther  entirely  shared.*  The 
most  foolish  old  wives'  tales  he  apparently  accepted  and  in 
his  "Tabletalk"  seriously  discussed,  together  with  witchcraft, 
sorcery,  etc.  He  makes  the  devil  responsible  for  all  plagues, 
sickness,  accidents,  etc.,  and  the  world  is  for  him  full  of  the 
weird  terrors  of  the  ignorant  superstitious  northland.  No  really 
self-consistent  system  of  Christian  ethics  could  long  prosper 
in  such  an  atmosphere.  Nor  did  it  in  point  of  fact.  Thus 
the  sacraments  are  debased  to  magic  against  these  evil  powers,^ 
and  throughout  the  whole  of  the  post-Lutheran  development 
the  ethics  are  hampered  by  this  dualism.  The  rude  anthropo- 
morphism of  Luther  contrasts  unfavorably  with  the  treatment 
of  the  angel  and  devil  superstitions  at  the  hands  of  reformed 
theologians.  This  may  not  be  wholly  due  to  conscious  rejection 
of  these  superstitions  by  reformed  teacliers,  for  that  was  seldom 
done;  it  is  due  to  the  more  speculative  and  less  concrete  forms 
in  which  reformed  theology  conveyed  its  teaching.  Luther's 
great  force  with  the  people  rested,  perhaps,  in  some  degree  upon 
the  fact  that  he  shared  with  them  the  rude  and  almost  pagan 
conception  of  the  world  inherited  from  the  past. 

4.  Luther's  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State 
is  full  of  inconsistency,  and  lacks  even  the  elements  of  strength 
possessed  by  the  relatively  consistent  scholastic  view  as  developed 
by  Thomas  Aquinas  and  later  by  Calvin.  In  the  passages  re- 
ferred to  on  pages  483-485  we  have  the  doctrine  of  the  church 

'  "Demnach  sprich:  wahrlich  der  Teufel  ist  noch  ein  Furst  in  der  Welt, 
und  ich  bin  ihm  noch  nicht  entrunnen,  so  lange  ich  aber  in  sinnen  Furstenthum 
bin,  bin  ich  sein  nicht  sicher;  darumb  muss  ich  zum  Sacrament  gehen,"  etc. 
"Vermahnung  zum  Sacrament  des  Lcibes  und  Blutes  unsers  Herrn,"  1530, 
Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXIII,  199. 

^  Cj.  "Tischreden  vom  Teufel  und  seinen  Werken,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol. 
LIX,  pp.  289-348,  and  vol.  60,  pp.  1-75. 

'  C/.  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXIII,  p.  165;  vol.  XXII,  p.  160,  and  many 
passages. 


THE    ETHICS    OF   LUTHER  487 

as  a  spiritual  force  developed.  But  Luther  has  no  really  de- 
fensible view  of  the  State.  It  has  an  existence  apart  from  the 
kingdom  of  God/  is  heathenish  ^  and  absurd.'  Yet  it  is  not 
taken  away  by  the  Gospel  but  rather  strengthened.^ 

Moreover,  it  is  God's  arrangement  for  "secular"  affairs,  but 
should  not  meddle  with  "spiritual"  affairs,^  for  these  two  worlds 
(weltlich  und  christlich  Reich)  are  not  to  be  mingled."  But 
Luther  had  no  hesitation  himself  in  telling  prince,  king,  and 
kaiser  in  the  name  of  God  just  what  they  should  do  in  all  manner 
of  situations.  In  his  very  declaration  to  the  Protestant  princes 
of  this  freedom  from  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  he  really  would 
only  change  the  nature  of  it,  and  it  was  no  fault  of  Luther's  that 
a  new  churchly  organization  did  not  undertake  the  reconstruction 
of  Germany,  much  as  Calvin  undertook  the  reconstruction  of 
Geneva.  This  was,  in  fact,  impossible  in  Germany,  and  Luther 
bowed  to  the  necessity  of  the  case,  but  the  result  was  a  compro- 
mise in  which  the  church  became  the  mere  handmaid  of  the 
State,  and  often  her  most  subservient  and  ignoble  tool. 

It  is  hard  to  blame  Luther  for  this.  Not  since  Paul  wrote 
Romans  13,  with  its  eminently  practical  but  easily  misunder- 
stood assumptions  of  the  divine  character  of  all  governments, 
has  the  Christian  world  had  any  clear  doctrine  of  the  relation  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  to  the  State.  The  scholastic  identification 
of  the  church  with  the  kingdom  of  God  is  the  real  cause  of  the 
trouble.  The  result  is  with  Luther  that  the  real  church  is  for 
him  a  transcendental  "other-worldly"  quantity,  which  gives 
again  even  to  the  great  human  Luther  a  certain  monkish  flavor 
when  dealing  with  the  Christian  life.  The  "  other-worldliness  " 
is  thus,  reflected  in  his  ethics  to  their  great  disadvantage. 

5.  The  sombre  mediaeval  despondency,  with  its  world-flight 
and  fundamental    despair,  is  never  wholly  absent  from  any 

*  "Auslegung  des  loi  Psa.,"  1534,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXXIX,  p.  328. 
^  Loc.  cit.,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXXIX,  p.  331. 

'  Loc.  cit.,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXXIX,  p.  329. 

*  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XIV,  p.  239;   vol.  XX,  p.  28. 

*  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXVII,  p.  336. 

*  "Predigt  am  heiligen  Christtagc,"  1532,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  I,  pp.  254-255. 


488  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

period  of  Luther's  life,  though  it  deepens  toward  the  close. 
The  world  is  a  "vale  of  tears"  *  ( Jammertal) ,  and  is  intended 
by  God  to  be  only  a  preparation  for  his  other  world,  as  a  car- 
penter builds  a  scaffold  for  the  house.^ 

In  sermons  preached  between  1537  and  1540  Luther  looks 
forward  to  a  speedy  end  to  the  world,^  and  he  takes  a  most 
gloomy  view  of  the  increasing  drunkeness,  gluttony,  usury,  ex- 
travagance, and  excesses  of  the  time.  He  constantly  thinks  in 
terms  of  two  worlds  or  kingdoms  wrestling  with  one  another.^ 

This  "  other- worldliness "  did  not  prevent  Luther  from  in- 
culcating cheerfulness  upon  believers,  and  in  his  "Tabletalk" 
he  expressly  enjoins  music  and  cheerfulness  as  good  remedies 
against  the  devil.^ 

III.      THE   PRACTICAL  ETHICS   OF   LUTHER 

I.  When  we  look  at  the  practical  reforming  activities  of 
Luther  the  reason  at  once  appears  why  he  takes  so  large  a  place 
in  history.  He  was  inferior  to  Melanchthon  in  knowledge  of 
the  scholastic  system  within  which  the  intellectual  life  of  both 
was  cast.  He  was  far  less  in  touch  with  the  really  modern 
world  at  many  points  than  was  Erasmus.  He  had  no  such 
profound  and  exhaustive  scholarship  as  Reuchlin.  But  no  one 
of  these  made  history  as  Luther  made  it.  The  identification  of 
Church  and  State  was  a  commonplace  of  human  thought  at 

*  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XL\'I,  p.  25. 

^  "Diese  Welt  ist  Gott  nur  eine  Vorbereitung  und  Geriiste  zu  jener  Welt. 
Gleich  als  ein  reicher  Bauherr  muss  viel  Geriists  haben  zu  einem  Hause." 
"Tischreden,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LXII,  p.  345. 

^  "Die  Wel(t)  hat  nun  gestanden  funf  tausend  funf  hundert  und  etliche  Yahr, 
nun  soil  im  sechs  tausend  Yahre  das  Ende  kommen,  und  wird  dasselbige  letztc 
tauscnde  Yahr  nicht  erfullet  werden,"  "  Uber  das  24  capital  Matthiii,"  Erlanger 
edition,  vol.  XLV,  p.  196. 

*  "Das  sind  die  zwei  widervvartige  Reiche  die  raufen  sich  mit  einander  fiir 
und  fiir  urn  die  Krone,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  VIII,  p.  216,  and  many  passages. 

*"Der  Teufel  ist  ein  trauriger  Geist  und  macht  traurige  Lente,  darumb 
kann  er  Frohlichkeit  nicht  leiden.  Daher  kompts  auch,  dass  er  von  der 
Musica  aufs  Weiteste  fleuget;  bleibt  nicht  wenn  man  singet,  sonderlich  geist- 
liche  Lieder,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LX,  p.  60. 


THE   PRACTICAL   ETHICS   OF  LUTHER       489 

that  time.  Luther's  practical  sense  flung  itself  upon  a  far- 
reaching  reform  of  the  State.  Germany  should  be  an  inde- 
pendent power  apart  from  Rome,  and  thus  his  letter  to  the 
Protestant  princes  became,  together  with  his  treatise  on  the 
Babylonian  captivity,  the  Magna  Charta  of  German  liberty.' 

Luther  looked  upon  the  State  as  ordained  of  God  for  certain 
purposes,  and  the  Christian  man  had  no  right  but  that  of  passive 
resistance.  So  he  deprecated  force,  and  yet  he  also  realized  that 
the  German  princes  had  the  right  of  self-defence.^  His  attitude 
toward  the  peasants  in  1525  was  along  the  lines  of  his  thought 
and  influence.  He  saw  in  the  twelve  articles  only  a  caricature  of 
the  teaching  he  himself  would  have  died  for.  And  in  exactly 
the  same  spirit  in  which  he  refused  co-operation  with  Zwingli 
he  refused  co-operation  with  Thomas  Miinzer.  It  is  unhistoric 
to  attempt  to  gloss  the  mistake  in  both  instances.  The  Reforma- 
tion was  again  and  again  betrayed  by  the  same  princes  who  so 
savagely  put  down  the  peasants.  We  must  remember,  however, 
that  at  the  same  time  Luther  as  sternly  demanded  humanity  and 
justice  at  the  hands  of  the  princes  as  he  did  submission  on  the 
part  of  the  peasants.  That  was  his  point  of  view.  It  was  the 
point  of  view  of  the  rising  middle-class  with  the  stamp  of  the  free 
city  upon  it. 

2.  In  his  view  life  was  still  in  reality  divided  into  religious  and 
secular,  and  the  State  was  still  "Christian."  He  could  not  see — 
many  do  not  yet  see — that  no  social  order  has  ever  been  really 
"Christian."  Hence  Luther's  treatment  of  law  as  twofold  or 
threefold  is  exceedingly  confused  and  confusing.^  Here  scholas- 
ticism is  apparent  in  a  most  pronounced  form.  There  are 
offences  against  "common  morality"  which  are  given  over  to  the 
State.  There  is  "essential"  sin,  i.  e.,  original,  which  needs  the 
"justicia"  of  regeneration,  and  there  is  actual  transgression 
(quod  est  fructus  originalis)  which  only  faith  can  overcome. 

'  English  readers  will  find  the  translation  of  Luther's  primary  works  by  Wace 
and  Buchheim  fairly  well  done.     (London,  1896.) 

^  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LXV,  pp.  83-86. 

'"Triple.x  est  pecatum,  cui  triple.x  apponitur  justicia,"  "Sermo  de  triplici 
Justicia,"  Weimar  edition,  vol.  II,  p.  59. 


490  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

This  dealing  with  the  State  as  "secular"  and  yet  as  "Chris- 
tian" and  from  God  is  further  confused  by  Luther's  relegating 
the  State  and  its  government  to  reason/  while  the  church  is 
governed  by  the  "word,"  conceived  of  as  a  something  external 
to  reason. 

This  separation  rendered  him  at  times  despondent  about  the 
State.  "Government  changes  and  government  reform,"  he 
says,  "are  two  different  things,  as  far  apart  as  heaven  and  earth. 
To  change  is  easy,  to  improve  is  uncertain  and  dangerous. 
Why  ?  Because  this  does  not  rest  on  our  will  or  power,  but 
belongs  alone  in  God's  will  and  hand."  ^  Government  is  God's 
ordinance  and  the  Christian  man,  who  must  not  himself  fight, 
must  fight  if  commanded  by  God's  servant  the  "secular"  prince.^ 
And  this  prince  may  himself  be  a  Christian,  but  in  that  case 
governs  "not  as  a  Christian  but  as  a  prince."  *  Thus  Luther 
not  only  recognized,  as  all  must,  the  prevailing  double  morality, 
but  sanctions  it  in  a  way  fatal  to  the  highest  ideals.  In  the 
advice  that  Luther  gave  to  Philip  of  Hesse  comes  out  plainly  the 
practical  effect  of  a  theoretical  defect  in  Luther's  ethics.^  He,  in 
point  of  fact,  fell  back  into  the  double  morality  which  the  com- 
promise between  Church  and  State  has  always  made  necessary." 

3.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  absurd  to  charge  Luther  with 
theoretic  looseness  in  regard  to  sexual  purity.  There  clung  to 
him  some  of  the  unfortunate  casuistical  weaknesses  born  of  the 

'  "Von  wcltlicher  Obrigkeit,"  1523,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXII,  p.  105. 

^"Ob  Kriegslcute  auch  in  seligem  Stande  sein  Konnen,"  1526,  Erlanger 
edition,  vol.  XXII,  pp.  244-290.     The  whole  treatise  is  exceedingly  suggestive. 

^  C/.,  also,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XLII,  iii;  vol.  Ill,  280;  vol.  LII,  298, 
and  many  passages. 

*  "Ein  Fiirst  kann  woU  ein  Christen  sein,  aber  als  ein  Christ  muss  er  nicht 
regieren;  und  nach  dem  er  regiert  heisst  cr  nicht  ein  Christ,  sondern  ein  Furst." 
"Postelle,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XLIII,  211. 

'  See  "Die  Doppclehe  des  Landgrafen  Philipp  von  Hessen,"  Rockwell,  W.  W., 
Marburg,  1904;  also  Luther's  "Lchre  von  dcr  Ehe "  Salfcld,  Ernest,  1882, 
"Luther  und  die  Ehc,"  Fuchs,  G.,  Stuttgart,  1891. 

"  Where  the  head  of  the  State  is  the  head  of  the  Church,  and  the  church  has  no 
power  to  depose  the  chief  ruler,  it  must  either  secure  a  saint  for  the  secular  prince 
or  wink  at  the  sins  and  follies  high  position  makes  exceedingly  easy  to  the 
average  man. 


V 


CF 


THE   PRACTICAL   ETHICS   OF  LUTHER       491 

unnatural  relationship  established  by  the  Roman  confessional. 
It  is,  however,  as  unfair  to  charge  him  with  these  as  to  assert  that 
the  notorious  sexual  laxness  of  special  Roman  Catholic  com- 
munities is  the  fault  of  the  confessional.^ 

4.  With  growing  admiration  one  must  study  the  fine  Chris- 
tian wisdom  and  almost  unfailing  common-sense  of  Luther  as  he 
addressed  himself  to  the  work  of  re-establishing  the  churches  of 
Germany.  He  is  in  the  line  of  apostolic  succession  with  Paul, 
Augustine,  and  Wesley.  He  felt  himself  righUy  to  be  a  conserver 
of  the  historical  past.  He  did  not  sympathize  with  the  thorough- 
going radicalism  of  Carlstadt,  and  only  pressed  for  reform  where 
he  thought  some  ethical  or  religious  value  endangered  by  the 
old  custom. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Protestant  princes  he  brings  out  plainly  the 
ethical  test  of  the  true  church,  and  we  have  already  seen  how  he 
recognized  the  priesthood  of  all  believers,  so  that  even  in  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments  it  is  only  a  matter  of  order  that 
some  function  and  others  do  not.^  For  all  men  he  demanded 
the  highest  attainment  in  grace,  and  the  church  is  the  "  holy 
community,"  and  so  far  as  it  Is  not  " holy"  it  is  not  a  true  church. 

The  most  serious  practical  weakness  in  the  ethical  reconstruc- 
tion as  regards  the  church  was  the  magical  intrusion.  The 
sacraments  were  too  often  thought  of,  not  in  the  categories  of 
ethics  but  of  magic  and  externalism.  Thus  sacramental  grace 
becomes  a  "treasure"  which  "the  church  possesses"  and  "dis- 
tributes."    So  he  adopts  Augustine's  "accedat  verbum  ad  ele- 

^  Cf.  Denifle,  Heinrich,  "Luther  und  Lutherthum,"  2d  ed.,  1904,  in  two 
parts,  which  is  an  unfair  and  one-sided  criticism  of  Luther.  The  mere  mis- 
use of  itahcs  (gesperrter  Druck)  enables  the  author  again  and  again  to  utterly 
misrepresent  Luther.  The  present  writer  has  no  brief  in  Luther's  defence. 
Protestantism  is  for  him  far  too  much  an  ideal  of  the  future  to  make  him  willing 
to  stake  his  faith  in  it  on  the  character  of  any  man.  But  after  careful  examina- 
tion of  all  that  has  been  recklessly  charged  against  Luther,  the  admiration  for 
the  man  has  steadily  grown.  He  used  frank,  coarse  language.  He  is  never 
impure.  He  spoke  slightingly  of  good  works  done  to  gain  heaven,  never  of  good 
works.  His  own  life,  by  historic  testimony  Denifle  himself  quotes,  was  pure 
simple,  and  of  good  report.     Could  Denifle  say  that  of  all  the  popes  ? 

*  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XI,  pp.  304  and  318. 


492  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

mcntum  ct  fit  sacramentum,''^  and  baptismal  water  becomes  a 
"divine  and  holy  thing,"  *  And  he  says  "  the  whole  force,  work, 
necessity,  fruit  and  end  of  baptism  is  to  confer  salvation,"  or 
"faith  clings  to  the  water  and  believes  that  baptism  confers 
life."  For  infant  baptism  he  has  no  defence  save  the  incorrect 
one  that  God  commanded  it.  This  high  sacramentarianism 
sooner  or  later  reacts  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  church  thought 
of  as  a  religious-ethical  force.  At  the  same  time  Luther  himself 
guarded  with  insistent  faithfulness  the  conception  of  the  church 
as  God's  messenger  of  salvation  to  all  men.  The  church  was 
the  proclaimer  of  God's  truth  and  the  educator  of  her  own 
children. 

5,  Thus  Luther's  practical  common-sense  taught  him  the 
bad  policy  of  expecting  reformation  by  the  sword  and  by  force. 
At  the  same  time  he  had  no  really  consistent  theory  of  the 
church,  and  based  his  right  conclusions  upon  a  false  and  fitfully 
held  theory  of  non-resistance  to  princes.  Seldom  does  Luther 
engage  in  weaker  arguments  than  in  his  dealing  with  the  peasant 
revolt,  even  though  he  had  good  reason  for  denouncing  the  folly 
of  staking  the  Reformation  upon  the  fanaticism  of  the  Anabap- 
tists and  the  revolting  serfs  and  peasants.^ 

In  his  practical  teaching  he  was  here  as  elsewhere  almost  al- 
ways right,  although  he  made  mistakes,  and  his  sermons  against 
the  unfortunate  peasants  are  no  more  to  be  defended  than 
Gregory  XIII's  Te  Deum  for  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholmew,  or 
Calvin's  complicity  in  the  death  of  Servetus.  He  also,  with  the 
other  reformess,  made  a  mistake  in  even  seeming  to  give  a  dis- 
pensation to  the  Landgrave.  That  again  was  an  intrusion  of 
Roman  Catholic  casuistry  upon  the  reformed  thinking.  No  real 
Protestant  is  the  lord  over  another  man's  conscience.  He  was 
also  mistaken  in  his  defence  of  the  "not-luge"  (lie  of  necessity), 
but  he  took  it  over  from  the  legal  morality  of  the  past,  and  the 
church  of  Rome  should  be  the  last  to  throw  stones  at  him  in  the 

'  "Greater  Catechism"  upon  baptism. 

''Cj.  "Sermons  to  the  Peasants,"  in  1525,  and  in  1522  his  "Wrmahnung  an 
alle  Christen." 


THE   PRACTICAL   ETHICS   OF  LUTHER       493 

matter.     It  is  as  untrue  to  accuse  Luther  of  defending  impurity 
or  untruth  as  it  would  be  to  assert  that  Rome  defends  murder/ 

6.  Equally  coarse  is  the  frequent  assertion  that  Luther  was 
drunken  and  a  defender  of  excess.  Again  and  again  he  de- 
nounces his  own  people  for  their  drunkeness.  It  is  "sin,"^ 
although  a  less  vice  than  uncleanness.  It  makes  the  service  of 
God  impossible.^  A  Christian  "should  be  such  a  man  as  will 
keep  his  body  temperate  in  eating  and  drinking,  and  will  not 
spoil  it  by  intemperate  gluttony  and  excess,  that  he  may  be 
constant,  sensible,  and  skilled  in  prayer."  *  No  drunkard  can  be 
a  Christian,  and  it  leads  to  all  other  vices.  Such  was  the  constant 
teaching  of  Luther.^  That  he  took  wine,  as  all  then  did,  was 
not  even  an  infringement  of  the  rules  of  his  order. 

7.  In  the  matter  of  personal  truthfulness  Luther's  discus- 
sion compares  favorably  with  the  general  treatment  in  scholas- 
tic ethics.  The  distinction  common  in  casuistry  between  the 
mendacium  perniciosum  and  the  mendacium  officiosum  Luther 
accepts,'  in  order  to  shield  some  of  the  Old  Testament  characters, 
but  he  was  himself  too  bold,  fearless,  and  outspoken  to  have 
patience  with  lying.  He  pours  out  his  contempt  upon  it,  as  the 
cause  of  half  the  sin  of  the  world.''  No  lie  that  injures  any  one 
can  have  any  defence,  although  a  lie  to  help  may  at  times  be 
permitted.  But  it  is  even  here  very  dangerous,  and  grows  like 
a  snowball,^  and  is  to  be  classed  with  murder. 

Luther  discusses  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance,  and  most 

*  Besides  works  quoted,  see  Luther's  teaching  on  marriage  set  forth  in  von 
Stumpf,  "Martin  Luther  iiber  die  Ehe,"  BerHn,  1857. 

^  Sermon  on  the  ninth  chapter  of  Genesis,  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXXIII,  p. 

215- 

'  "Am  zwanzigsten  sonntage  nach  Trin,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  IX,  p.  331. 

*  "Am  Sonntage  nach  Himmelfahrt,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  VIII,  pp.  280- 
286.     The  sermon  is  an  excellent  temperance  tract. 

'The  lines  "Wer  nicht  liebt  Wein,  Weib,  Gesang"  are  not  by  Luther,  but 
by  Voss.     He  never  said  anything  of  the  kind. 
8  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXXV,  p.  18. 
'  "Am  neunzehnten  Sonntage  nach  Trin,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  IX,  p.  313- 

314- 

'  "Tischreden,"  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  LVIII,  p.  308. 


494  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

clearly,  in  a  sermon  upon  Matt.  26  :  56.^  He  who  takes  the 
sword  will  die  by  the  sword.  Yet  resistance  to  evil-doing  is 
proper,  so  long  as  it  is  without  anger  or  hatred  and  along  the 
given  lines  of  legal  remedy.  Moreover,  any  one  attacked  by  a 
murderer  in  the  woods  has  a  right  to  defend  himself,  but  it  is 
only  in  extreme  cases,  and  all  must  be  done  under  the  general 
law  of  love  to  our  neighbor.  Nor  must  we  ever  forget  how 
passive  and  unresisting  Jesus  was,  even  under  illegal  treatment.^ 
Luther  felt  so  deeply  that  personal  revenge  was  out  of  place  that 
he  urges  the  injured  one  to  abstain  from  pressing  his  own  suit.^ 
He  should  rather  "ask  and  hinder"  any  one  revenging  him. 
Thus  punishment  would  be  carried  out  in  a  spirit  of  brotherly 
love.^ 

Luther  saw  the  evils  plainly  enough  of  the  commercial  middle- 
class  spirit  which  was  to  so  soon  rule  the  progressive  West.  He 
denounces  fiercely,  although  of  course  indiscriminately,  greed, 
usury,  and  the  commercial  hardness  of  his  day.*  He  goes  back  to 
Aristotle  and  Roman  law  for  his  arguments  against  all  interest,^ 
but  fails  to  really  put  his  finger  on  either  the  economical  or  the 
ethical  weakness  of  the  new  development.  Indeed  that  would 
have  been  too  much  to  expect  of  him."  He  traces  the  revolt  of 
the  peasants  to  their  ignorance  of  the  Gospel  and  to  the  un- 
wisdom of  the  land-owners.'  For  Luther  the  revolting  peasants 
were  "breakers  of  the  peace,  forsworn,  traitors,  blasphemers 
against  God,"  but  he  demanded  of  the  triumphant  land-owners 
that  they  should  not  press  their  advantage,  and  pled  for  mercy 
for  those  who  gave  way.  His  sympathies  were  wholly  with  his 
class,  and  the  proletariat,  he  knew,  were  deceived  by  the  un- 

'  Erlangcr  edition,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  49-60. 

■  "Grosser  Sermon  vom  Wucher,"  1509,  Erlangcr  edition,  vol.  XX,  pp.  89-92. 

*  Erlangcr  edition,  vol.  XX,  p.  93. 

*  Erlangcr  edition,  Vol.  XLV,  p.  6  ff. 

*  "An  die  Ffarrherrn,  wider  den  Wucher  zu  prcdigen,"  1540,  Erlangcr  edition, 
vol.  XXIII,  p.  282-338.  The  whole  sermon  is  most  interesting,  with  its  bad 
political  economy  but  clear  insight  into  the  evils  of  the  commercial  spirit. 

*  The  classic  passages  will  be  found  in  his  sermons  against  usury.  Cf.  vol. 
XX,  pp.  89-122  and  122-127;  v"'-  XXIII,  pp.  282-338;  vol.  XLV,  pp.  158-160. 

^  Erlangcr  edition,  vol.  XXIV,  p.  267;   also  vol.  LXV,  pp.  1-46. 


THE   PRACTICAL   ETHICS   OF  LUTHER       495 

doubtedly  fanatical  "prophets."  On  the  whole  Luther  could 
hardly  have  been  expected  to  act  otherwise.  Where  would  the 
sympathies  of  any  white  Southern  minister  of  the  Gospel  have 
been  in  case  of  a  temporarily  successful  rising  of  the  slaves 
before  1865  in  America?  For  Luther  serfdom  was  as  much  a 
divine  institution  as  slavery  was  for  Southern  Presbyterianism.^ 

The  ethical  process  is  a  twofold  one.  On  the  one  hand  we 
extract  from  our  experiences  the  general  principles  which  must 
rule  our  conduct,  and  on  the  other  in  the  application  of  those 
principles  to  conduct  we  correct  and  enlarge  them.  Luther  awoke 
the  world  to  a  new  and  larger  conception  of  the  Christ  life  as 
springing  from  the  Christ  purpose.  He  saw  that  "good  works  do 
not  make  a  good  man,"  but  that  "a  good  man  does  good  works." 
The  full  Christian  obligation  he  laid  upon  all :  "I  will  give  myself 
as  a  sort  of  Christ  to  my  neighbor  as  Christ  has  given  himself  to 
me,  and  will  do  nothing  in  this  life  except  what  I  see  will  be 
needful,  advantageous,  and  wholesome  for  my  neighbor." 

Nowhere,  perhaps,  does  Luther  sum  up  better  his  religious 
ethics  than  in  the  beautiful  tract  "  Tessaradecus."  ^  There  are 
in  it  many  touches  of  a  distinctly  Roman  Catholic  piety,  but  the 
general  outline  is  above  and  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  sectarian 
dispute.  The  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus  is  life's  highest  good. 
The  goal  is  the  vision  of  God,  because  that  vision  will  separate 
us  forever  from  sin.  Death  is,  in  so  far,  for  the  Christian  man  a 
good.  Life  has  two  kinds  of  hope,  one  negative,  the  termination 
of  evil,  the  other  positive,  the  attainment  of  the  good.^  There  is 
here  a  beautiful  refinement  in  the  treatment  of  heaven  and  hell  in 
pleasing  contrast  to  the  ordinary  thought  of  that  day,  even  as 
reflected  in  Luther's  other  writings.  Separation  from  sin  is 
heaven,  abandonment  by  God  is  hell.  Hell  is  sin,  heaven  is  love 
within  us.  God  is  our  friend  and  communion  with  him  and 
co-operation  with  him  in  his  work  is  heaven.     More  than  once 

•  Erlanger  edition,  vol.  XXXVI,  p.  175  if.,  and  many  passages. 

*  "Fourteen  Sources  of  Comfort  for  the  Weary  and  Heavy-laden."  In  Latin 
and  German  (Spalatin's  translation),  1520,  and  revised  1536-1537. 

^  "Spes  mali  amovendi,  et  spes  boni  accessuri." 


496  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

Luther  is  reported  in  his  "Tabletalk"  as  saying  that  the  devil 
cheats  men  with  the  false  syllogism :  "  You  are  a  sinner.  God  is 
the  sinner's  enemy.  God  is  your  enemy."  Luther  denounces 
the  assertion  that  God  is  the  sinner's  enemy.  The  power  of  the 
priest  in  all  ages  has  been  men's  fear  of  God.  Loving  children 
do  not  need  a  priest  between  them  and  their  Father.  Thus 
Luther  struck  a  deadly  blow  at  the  power  of  the  priesthood. 

But  most  especially  did  Luther  teach  men,  as  no  one  had 
taught  them  hitherto,  that  the  daily  task  was  sacred.  This 
became  the  watchword  of  a  new  ethical  life.  He  himself  never 
quite  shook  off  the  shadows  of  priesdy  misrepresentation  of  God. 
In  this  Denifle  is  quite  right.  But  the  fault  was  not  Luther's 
but  the  popular  religion  fostered  by  the  hierarchy.  He  was 
often  afflicted  by  physical  depression.  Yet  in  hymn  and  sermon, 
in  work  and  life,  the  greatest  of  the  reformers  taught  the  new- 
old  lesson,  rejoice  in  the  Lord  always,  again  I  say  rejoice ! 

II.    THE    ETHICS    OF    MELANCHTHON. 

If  Luther  was  the  man  of  action,  and  the  adviser  of  ac- 
tion on  the  part  of  those  who  had  the  political  responsibility 
for  the  Reformation  on  their  hands,  no  less  was  Melanchthon  the 
formulator  of  the  churchly  system  of  thought  which  took  the 
place  of  the  discredited  Roman  Catholic  theology.  This  may  be 
deemed  unfortunate.  Certainly  Melanchthon  was  dogmatic  and 
reactionary  in  the  outlines  of  his  thought;  at  the  same  time  it  is 
unhistorical  to  contrast  too  strongly  the  two  men.  As  we  have 
seen,  there  was  in  Luther  a  scholastic  and  reactionary  trend 
which  only  some  immediate  ethical  or  religious  interest  could 
make  him  override.*     It  is  often  overlooked,  however,  that  here 

'  In  Ritschl's  "Lehre  von  der  Rechtfertigung  und  Versohnung,"  and  particu- 
larly in  the  third  volume  there  is  a  running  critique  of  Melanchthon's  theology 
(pp.  7,  97,  107-108,  no,  136-137,  273,  370,  etc.),  4th  cd.,  1895,  which  pro- 
duces often  the  impression  that  Ritschl  laid  upon  Melanchthon  the  blame  of  the 
reactionary  character  of  post-Reformation  theology.  This  was,  certainly,  the 
impression  he  also  left  upon  his  students  of  dogmatics,  but  how  fairly  he  held 
the  historical  balance  may  be  seen  in  his  first  volume,  3d  ed.,  1889,  pp.  185-203. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  MELANCHTHON  497 

as  elsewhere,  the  age  determined  to  a  large  degree  the  limits 
of  the  intellectual  revolution.  The  disorders  of  the  time  de- 
manded constructive  statesmanship.  This  was  sadly  lacking. 
Conservatism  has  always  definite  and  material  interests  to  give 
unity  to  its  activity.  It  stands  for  the  defence  of  vested  privileges, 
of  class,  of  property,  of  education,  of  Church,  and  of  State.  Re- 
form and  a  really  progressive  idealism  has  little  but  promises  of 
a  better  future;  and  the  faith  of  even  its  most  sturdy  defender  is 
sadly  tried  by  the  vagaries  of  the  camp-followers,  who  range 
from  dogmatic  one-sidedness  to  fanatical,  unhistorical  radicalism 
all  along  the  line. 

Luther  never  sought  to  cut  himself  off  from  history.  Even  his 
denunciation  of  Aristode  is  explicable  on  the  line  of  his  own 
intellectual  development  (nominalist).  He  was  always  at  one 
with  Melanchthon  in  seeking  to  maintain  the  intellectual  unity 
of  history.  The  immediate  pressing  need  of  some  definite 
reconstruction  of  the  intellectual  basis  of  life  called  into  play  the 
great  powers  of  thought  and  feeling  possessed  by  the  gentle  and 
learned  Melanchthon.^ 

*  Melanchthon,  Philipp,  born  February  i6,  1497,  died  April  19,  1560,  the  son 
of  Georg  Schwarzerd,  but  he  wrote  his  name  later  in  Greek,  and  himself  used 
from  1 53 1  on  the  shortened  form  Melanthon.  The  "complete  edition"  of  Carl 
Gottlieb  Bretschneider  and  Heinrich  Ernst  Bindseil  in  the  "Corpus  Reforma- 
torum,"  vols.  I-XXVIII,  Halle,  1834-1860,  has  been  supplemented  by  Bindseil, 
Hartfelder,  and  others,  but  the  student  of  ethics  will  find  his  material  mainly  in 
vols.  XI,  XII,  XVI,  XXI,  XXII,  XXIII,  and  XXVHI.  The  "Loci"  have  been 
very  carefully  edited  by  Plitt-Kolde  with  most  useful  introductory  matter  ("Die 
Loci  Communis  Philipp  Melanchthons  in  ihrer  Urgestalt  nach  G.  L.  Plitt;  in 
zweiter  Auflage  von  neuem  herausgegeben  und  erlautert  von  Theodor  Kolde," 
Erlangen  and  Leipsic,  1890).  The  best  life  is  by  Karl  Schmidt,  "Philipp 
Melanchthon,  Leben  und  ausgewahlte  Schriften,"  ("Vater  der  lutherischen 
Kirche"  series,  vol.  Ill),  Elberfeld,  1861,  and  James  William  Richard,  "Philipp 
Melanchthon:  The  Protestant  Preceptor  of  Germany,"  1497-1560  ("Heroes  of 
the  Reformation"  series).  New  York,  1898.  His  ethical  work  is  especially 
treated  by  Christoph  Ernst  Luthardt,  "Die  Arbeiten  Melanchthons  im  Gebicte 
der  Moral,"  Leipsic,  1884.  See  also  "  Theologische  Studien  und  Kritikcn," 
1897,  for  estimates  by  Gustav  Kawerau,  "Melanchthon  neben  Luther,"  pp. 
668-686,  and  Friedrich  Loofs,  "Melanchthon  als  Humanist  und  Reformator," 
pp.  641-667;  also  Adolf  Harnack,  in  "Revue  Chretienne,"  vol.  XLIV,  1897, 
"Philippe  Melanchthon,"  Discourse  16,  February,  1897,  University  of  Berlin, 


498  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

The  outline  of  Melanchthon's  ethics  is  set  out  in  his  "Philoso- 
phiae  Moralis  Epitome,"  ^  which  appeared  in  the  first  edition  in 
1538,  and  under  different  wording  remains  substantially  the 
basis  of  all  his  later  thought.  He  defines  moral  philosophy  as 
that  part  of  the  divine  law  which  concerns  itself  with  external 
action,'  and  then  goes  on  to  distinguish  between  philosophy  and 
the  Gospel,  any  confusion  of  which  produces  "horrible  errors." 
The  Gospel  is  a  revealed  promise  of  God  on  account  of  Christ  of 
the  free  forgiveness  of  sin,  of  reconciliation  and  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  of  life  eternal.  This  could  not  be  discovered  by 
reason.  Yet  in  the  exact  spirit  of  the  scholastics  he  accepts 
reason  as  the  blurred  impress  of  the  law  of  God  upon  the  human 
soul.^  This  revelation  (ethical)  is  a  remnant  of  the  divine  light, 
and  the  dignity  of  human  nature  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a 
glass  in  which  the  wisdom  of  God  is  reflected.  Philosophia  has 
a  distinguished  place  therefore,  although  it  is  not  on  a  level  with 
the  Gospel  Evangelium.  It  deals  with  demonstrations  from 
principles,  and  he  rejects  the  Academy  position  that  these 
principles  are  simply  probable. 

Thus  Melanchthon  sets  before  himself  the  task  of  scholasti- 
cism, namely,  the  rationalization  of  human  conduct  within  a 
closed  system.  /The  law  of  nature,  he  teaches  with  the  older 
\  Stoics,  is  the  law  of  God._^  But  moral  philosophy  concerns  itself 
with  civil  custom,  and  at  this  point  Melanchthon  confuses 
ethics  with  statute  law.  Law  is  a  school-master  to  bring  us  to 
Christ,  he  quotes  from  Paul,  and  as  such  has  its  rewards  and 
penalties.     It  has  also  its  assured  principles,  and  the  moral 

translated  by  Rene  Puaux,  pp.  161-177.  The  scholasticism  of  Melanchthon 
has  been  treated  by  W.  Bornemann,  "Melanchthon  als  Schulmann,"  Magde- 
burg, 1897.  See  also  Franz  Koltzsch,  "Melanchthons  philosophische  Ethik," 
Freiburg,  1889,  and  §  III  in  Christoph  Ernst  Luthardt's  "Geschichte  der 
Ethik  seit  der  Reformation"  (vol.  II  of  his  "Geschichte  der  christlichcn  Ethik"), 
Leipsic,  1893,  pp.  38-53. 

'  Vol.  XVI,  "Corpus  Reformatorum,"  pp.  20-163. 

'  "Scd  cruditissima  definitio  est  haec:  Philosophia  moralis  est  pars  ilia  legis 
divinze,  qua;  de  externis  actionibus  praicipit." 

^"Nam  lex  divina  hominum  mentibus  impressa  est,  scd  in  hac  imbecillitate 
naturx  obscurata  est,"  etc. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  MELANCHTHON  499 

extravagances  of  the  race  are  due  to  ignorance  of  these.  Thus 
Melanchthon  again  divides  ethics  into  natural  and  supernatural, 
with  the  ultimate  assumption  that  there  can  be  no  real  conflict 
between  them. 

The  uses  of  moral  philosophy  are  educational,  and  it  has  the 
advantage  of  written  law  in  so  far  that  written  law  is  concise, 
while  philosophy  can  and  should  explicate  the  reasons  for  the 
conduct  it  commands. 

It  sets  forth  also  the  foundations  of  jurisprudence,  for  as 
Aristotle  showed  of  old  the  best  law  is  that  which  follows  nature. 
Hence  the  lawyer  should  be  a  student  of  moral  philosophy. 

The  theologian  also  must  study  it,  for  although  the  Gospel  has 
a  different  place  from  law  and  philosophy,  nevertheless  the 
theologian  must  discourse  about  the  dignity  of  civil  affairs,  of 
political  laws,  of  magistrates  and  rulers,  and  the  morals  necessary 
in  the  civil  State. 

The  main  difference,  however,  between  the  laws  of  the  magis- 
trates and  the  conclusions  of  the  philosophical  dispute  Melanch- 
thon sees  in  the  fact  that  the  laws  are  bare,  naked  precepts  with- 
out assigned  cause  or  reason.  Philosophy  explicates  the  reasons 
for  conduct. 

Moral  philosophy  deals  with  ends  and  must  ask  what  is  the  end 
of  human  life.  The  answer  is  to  know  God  and  to  reveal  his 
glory. ^  In  nature  all  things  obey  the  law  of  their  being,  the  sun 
hastens  to  its  goal,  but  man  has  lost  by  original  sin  the  power  of 
obedience,  and  the  goal  must  be  reconstructed  according  to  the 
law  of  God  and  a  true  and  sound  philosophy.  The  Stoics  were 
right  in  seeing  God  in  the  notions  of  justice  and  social  order. 
Following  the  Gospel,  however,  the  end  of  human  life  is  to  know 
Christ  the  son  of  God,  and  to  accept  the  gracious  offering  and  to 
glorify  God  by  obedience  to  it. 

There  then  follows  a  criticism  from  this  point  of  view  of  the 
"end"  of  human  life  as  set  forth  by  Aristotle,  and  of  the  Epicu- 
reans, whose  doctrines  he  sets  forth  in  syllogisms,  which  he  then 

*  "Ergo  finis  hominis  est  agnoscere  Deum,  et  patefacere  ejus  gloriam."  Cj. 
"Westminster  Cat.,"  Q.  i. 


500  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

refutes,  but  without  true  appreciation  of  the  real  position  of 
Epicurus.  He  defends  the  Stoic  position  that  the  only  real  good 
is  virtue,  and  at  the  same  time  shows  that  there  are  inferior 
goods  and  that  the  dispute  is  about  words. 
"  If,  then,  as  Aristotle  has  shown,  virtuous  action  is  the  end  of 
human  life,  moral  philosophy  must  concern  itself  with  the  nature 
of  virtue.  He  then  follows  Aristotle.  Virtue  is  a  habit,  which 
inclines  the  will  to  obedience  of  right  reason.^  At  the  same  time 
Plato  was  right  so  far  that  in  defining  virtue  as  justice,  he  marks 
the  fact  that  virtue  is  harmony  in  which  all  parts  co-operate  and 
the  inferior  obey  the  superior. 

Melanchthon  then  seeks  the  causes  of  virtue  both  primary  and 
secondary,  and  here  again  he  stands  upon  the  old  scholastic 
position  of  a  closed  system  revealed  in  nature  and  in  revelation 
from  which  right  reason  deduces  the  principles  of  conduct. 
The  secondary  causes  conducing  to  virtue  are  teaching  (doc- 
trina),  the  natural  impulse,  and  discipline.  Rites  and  cere- 
monies are  often  God's  method  of  discipline.  So  far  philosophic 
ethics  goes,  but  the  Christian  adds  the  conception  of  the  Gospel 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  aiding  and  impelling  human  nature;  and 
when  we  see  the  weakness  of  philosophy  in  the  midst  of  man's 
helplessness,  then  the  more  ardently  do  we  embrace  the  Christian 
teaching  which  oflfers  aid  in  this  weakness.  There  then  follows 
a  bit  of  choice  schoLasticism  in  a  distinction  between  "causa 
formalis"  and  "causa  finalis." 

Classic  for  the  post-Reformation  ethics  is  now  Melanchthon's 
discussion  of  the  freedom  of  the  human  will.*  He  rejects  the 
Stoic  teaching  of  fate,  and  shows  that  both  philosophy  and  Paul 
teach  a  degree  of  freedom  for  the  human  will  in  external  and 
civil  affairs.  This  he  does  in  a  series  of  arguments  with  "solu- 
tions" and  in  an  acute  and  learned  critique  of  (Roman)  Stoi- 
cism. Then  he  takes  up  Aristode,  whose  position  as  to  the  grades 
of  action  he  accepts,'  and  distinguishes  between  "common"  and 

'  "Virtus  est  habitus,  qui  inclinat  voluntatem  ad  obcdiendum  recta;  rationi." 
'  "Estne  voluntas  humana  libera?"     "Corpus  Reform.,"  vol.  XVI,  p.  42. 
'"Sunt  igitur  hi  gradus   actionum.     Alia;  sunt  i5(r«  tales,   alia;  W^,   aliie 
^ouXi}ff«t,  alia;  irpoapiati,'"  "Corpus  Reform.,"  vol.  XVI,  p.  57. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  MELANCHTHON  501 

"heroic"  virtues.  Heroic  virtues  are  only  reached  by  the  help 
of  divine  inspiration.  This  was  the  case  in  even  classic  times, 
and  such  are  the  virtues  of  the  saints,  who  were  sustained  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  like  Abraham,  David,  Paul,  and  others.  Nor 
is  this  inconsistent  with  Aristotle's  definition  of  virtue  as  a  mean 
between  extremes,  when  that  definition  is  rightly  interpreted. 
Nor  does  Plato,  when  properly  understood,  stand  upon  any 
other  ground. 

In  the  division  of  the  virtues  the  Decalogue  is  Melanchthon's 
convenient  guide.  At  this  point  there  is  no  real  advance  upon 
the  classic  scholastic  distinctions  between  duties  to  God,  to  man, 
and  the  evangelical  virtues.  The  discussion  of  the  virtues  is  also 
disappointing,  falling  far  below  Luther's  estimate  of  the  rounded 
Christian  life  of  common  tasks.  Indeed  as  an  ethical  treatise  it 
is  below  the  level  of  Thomas  Aquinas's  work.* 

It  is  not  so  much,  however,  his  conclusions  as  his  method  that 
did  harm  to  the  development  of  a  genuine  Protestant  ethics. 
Even  humanism,  although  primarily  so  pagan  in  its  ethical 
outlook,  might  have  given  rise  within  Protestantism  to  a  genuine 
religious  rationalism,  with  a  unified  and  consistent  ethical  philos- 
ophy, but  upon  the  vain  and  outworn  distinctions  of  the  mixed 
culture  of  scholasticism  there  was  no  chance  to  build  securely. 
Thus  into  post-Reformation  ethics  Melanchthon  reintroduced 
the  authority  of  an  external  code,  the  quasi-authority  of  classic 
philosophy,  the  confusions  of  metaphysical  discussions  from  the 
standing  ground  of  a  priori  dogmatism;  and  thus  he  lost  himself, 
and  post-Reformation  Lutheranism  followed  him  back  into  the 
wilderness  of  dreary  scholastic  unreality. 

It  would  not  be  profitable  here  to  take  up  in  detail  Melanch- 
thon's acute  and  learned  reviews  of  Aristotle  and  Cicero's 
ethics.  He  is  not  always  self-consistent,  nor  has  the  writer  been 
able  to  trace  consistent  chronological  development  in  his  ethical 
thought.  He  seems  rather  to  have  readily  yielded  to  the  force 
of  particular  writers  with  whom  he  was  busy.  In  the  second 
redaction  of  the  "  Epitome"  in  1550,  under  the  heading  " Ethical 

'  "Pars  Secunda  Secundae,"  of  the  "Summa." 


502  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

doctrinae  elementa,"  *  there  is,  for  instance,  a  marked  increase 
in  the  influence  of  Cicero,  perhaps  as  seen  through  Ambrose,  and 
also  greater  scholastic  refinement. 

In  the  "Loci"  and  the  ethics  of  his  middle  and  later  periods 
there  is  wavering  and  uncertainty,  and  after  Luther's  death, 
which  came  to  him  both  as  a  shock  and  yet  also  as  a  relief  from 
masterful  pressure,^  the  scholastic  interest  is  ever  in  the  fore- 
ground. He  increasingly  inclined  to  the  impossible  intellectual 
mediation  which  has  been  the  bane  of  Protestantism.  Perhaps 
this  wavering  character  was  the  constitutional  weakness  of  a 
scholar  thrust  into  an  unwelcome  leadership  in  action.  Perhaps 
Melanchthon  recognized  the  fact  that  he  had  many  intellectual 
bonds  with  the  mediaeval  past.^ 

This  especially  reveals  itself  in  a  field  from  which  this  history 
has  tried  to  keep  aloof,  namely,  the  dogmatic  presuppositions  of 
I  an  authoritative  ethical  system.  The  relations,  for  instance,  of 
{grace  to  the  renewed  man  and  the  place  in  the  ethical  life  of  the 
I  whole  sacramental  system  become,  for  post-Reformation  ethics, 
important  questions.  In  the  unio  mystica  of  the  redeemed  man 
with  Christ  the  questions  arise.  Is  the  mystical  union  with  his 
manhood  or  with  his  will?  Does  the  sacrament  complete  the 
process,  or  is  it  only  a  "seal"  upon  the  completed  event  or  an 
aid  to  its  completion?  etc.,  etc.?  These  and  like  school  ques- 
tions were  again  thrust  upon  the  Reformation  by  the  acceptance 

'  "Corpus  Reform.,"  vol.  XVI,  p.  165. 

^  C/.  the  oft-quoted  letter  to  Carlowitz:  "Tuli  etiam  antea  servitutem  paene 
deformem,  cum  saepe  Lutherus  magis  sua:  natura;  in  qua  (pCKoveiKla.  erat  non 
exigua,  quam  vel  personae  suae,  vel  utilitaticommuni  serviret,"  "Corpus  Reform.," 
vol.  VI,  p.  880. 

'In  the  "Schriften  des  Vereins  fiir  Reformations-geschichte,"  No.  73  (19th 
year,  1901-1902),  Dr.  Gustav  Kawerau  has  published  a  most  interesting  account 
of  Melanchthon's  relations  to  the  Curia,  "Die  Versuche  Melanchthon  zur 
katholischen  Kirche  zuriickzufiihren  (1902)."  Here  we  see  the  purely  human- 
istic and  literary  tastes  of  Melanchthon  struggling  with  the  religious  and  dog- 
matic interests,  and  although  it  may  be  unfair  to  press  too  far  expressions  of 
Melanchthon's  used  in  politeness  in  his  correspondence  with  Roman  Catholics, 
or  in  temporary  fits  of  disgust  with  the  rawness  of  the  new  Protestantism,  at  the 
same  time  such  expressions  would  have  been  perfectly  impossible  for  such  self 
conscious  Protestants  as  Luther  and  Zwingli. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  MELANCHTHON  503 

of  the  scholastic  Aristotelian  philosophy  as  a  quasi  official  inter- 
pretation of  the  evangelical  ethics.' 

In  the  "  Loci "  (3d  form)  ^  the  sections  that  have  ethical  interest 
are  those  dealing  with  sin  and  the  lavv.^  Luther  was  still  living, 
but  the  change  in  emphasis  wrought  by  scholastic  disputation  is 
apparent.  In  both  method  and  matter  there  is  distinct  reversion 
to  the  ethics  of  the  schools  and  deep  and  fundamental  confusion 
with  regard  to  law  and  grace. 

The  sinner  has  freedom  of  the  will  for  civil  virtues  and  in 
regard  to  outward  actions.  He  is  free  to  commit  or  abstain  from 
committing  the  grosser  sins.  And  youth  should  be  taught  that 
God  punishes  in  this  life  infractions  of  the  outward  morality. 
At  the  same  time,  against  sin  and  death  all  are  helpless  without 
grace.  This  is  given  freely  together  with  penitence  and  contri- 
tion. Then  enters  again  the  old  scholastic  distinctions  between 
kinds  of  grace  and  the  confusions  grouped  generally  under  the 
head  of  "synergism)"  The  grace  that  redeems  gives  penitence 
and  renewal,  and  then  sustaining  grace  enables,  by  the  continu- 
ous merits  of  Christ,  the  sinner  to  please  God  by  the  imperfectly 
sanctified  works  of  the  redeemed  man.  If  a  student  of  ethics 
may  be  allowed  an  opinion  in  dogmatics  as  between  the  ultimate 
position  of  the  Council  of  Trent  and  Melanchthon's  last  edition 
of  the  "Loci,"  the  dogmatical  position  of  Trent  is  ethically 
clearer  and  less  objectionable. 

The  practical  outcome  of  Melanchthon's  position  would  be  a 
twofold  ethical  relation,  a  rather  coarsely  eudaemonistic  ethics  for 
the  unredeemed  in  his  civil  relations,  and  a  religious  ethics  for 
the  redeemed,  in  which,  however,  the  Decalogue  is  fundamental 
and  the  legal  element  is  never  overcome. 

The  threefold  division  of  the  law  into  moral,  ceremonial,  and 

*  Even  down  to  Julius  Miiller,  as  one  may  see  in  his  chapters  upon  "Hilfsatze 
aus  der  Dogmatik,"  in  the  ethical  work  published  after  his  death  by  Julius 
Leopold  Schultze  ("Dr.  Julius  Muller  ^s  Ethiker  und  die  Glaubensfrage  mit 
Bezug  auf  das  Apostolicum,"  etc.,  Bremen,  1895). 

^  "Corpus  Reformatorum,"  vol.  XXI,  pp.  560-1106. 

'  "De  causa  peccati  et  de  contingentia  (III),  De  humanis  viribus  seu  de  libero 
arbitrio  (IV),  De  peccato  (V),  De  lege  divina  <VI),"  pp.  643-731. 


504  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

judicial  or  civil  is  not  self-consistently  carried  out.*  Nor  does 
Melanchthon  grasp  the  subject  of  law  as  firmly  as  the  older 
scholasticism,  and  at  the  same  time  he  brings  in  the  creeds  and 
the  church  as  equal  authorities  with  the  law  in  a  way  self- 
conscious  Protestantism  can  never  do.^  And  although  Melanch- 
thon distinctly  refused  to  identify  faith  with  the  acceptance  of 
"history,"  ^  in  both  his  definition  of  faith  as  "acceptance  of  the 
Gospel  that  sin  is  forgiven"  in  "real  fright  and  terror  before  the 
anger  of  God,"  as  well  as  in  his  definition  of  law,  there  are  weak 
and  beggarly  elements. 

While  making  these  criticisms  and  deploring  the  subsequent 
confusions  into  which  Melanchthon  led  the  ethics  of  Lutheran- 
ism,  from  which  they  did  not  emerge  until  Kant,  it  is  at  the  same 
time  true  that  Melanchthon  saw  the  need  of  both  intellectual 
formulation  of  ethics  and  greatly  stimulated  the  interest  in 
moral  philosophy.  Perhaps  it  is  to  him  that  German  philosophy 
owes  in  large  part  its  tremendously  ethical  interest,  and  the  very 
confusions  of  Melanchthon  compelled  religious  thought  restlessly 
to  seek  a  firmer  ground  upon  which  to  stand. 

Melanchthon's  interest  in  humanism  also  prepared  the  way 
for  that  union  of  religious  Protestantism  with  the  intellectual 
awakening,  which,  in  spite  of  all  the  protests  of  Roman  Catholic 
imperialism  within  Protestant  orthodoxy,  so-called,  has  steadily 
compelled  Protestantism  to  shake  off  the  grave-clothes  of 
scholasticism  and  to  seek  God  in  humble  dependence  upon  the 
only  means  he  has  given  us  to  find  him. 

'  The  third  commandment  is  a  lex  natura,  and  for  all  time  and  for  all  men. 
"De  tertio  praecepto,"  vol.  XXI,  p.  700,  "Corpus  Reformat orum." 

*"Und  nach  dem  die  Kirche  zur  Apostles  Zeit  die  Hauptstucke  christlicher 
Lehre  in  das  symbolum  Apostolorum  gefasset  hat,  und  ist  hernach  im  Symbolum 
Niceno  und  Athanasii,  dcr  vorigen  Symbol!  warhafftige  Klerunge  trculich 
gemacht  worden,  will  ich  im  Anfang  hie  meine  Ewige  Bekentniss  mit  warhaff- 
tigcm  Hertzen  setzen,  das  ich  warhafTtiglich  alle  Artikel  in  demselbigcn  symbolis 
gefasset,  gleube,  und  als  gottlichc  Warheit  anneme,  und  mit  Gottes  Gnaden 
ewiglich  also  halten  wil,  und  sage  dabey  das  alle  Engcln  und  Menschen 
diesclbigen  Symbola  mit  warhafftigene  glauben  an  zu  nemen  schuldig  sind." 
"Loci  German,"  "Corpus  Reform.,"  vol.  XXII,  p.  58. 

"Cf.  "Kxamin.  Ordinandorum,"  "Corpus  Reform.,"  vol.  XXIII,  p.  50-51. 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MOVEMENT  505 


III.      THE   ANABAPTIST   MOVEMENT   AND    ITS   ETHICS 

No  movement  has  been  more  misrepresented  and  learnedly 
misconstrued  than  the  so-called  Anabaptist  movement.  Those 
vi^ho  are  classed  as  Anabaptists  have  often  no  common  bond  at 
all.  Munzer  did  not  reject  infant  baptism.  Hiibmaier  did  not 
teach  communism.  Denck  wsls  a  mystic  v^ith  almost  no  interest 
in  social  reconstruction.  Storch  had  almost  no  other  interest 
than  the  proletarian  uprising,  than  which  nothing  could  have 
been  more  abhorrent  to  the  learned  and  gentie  Schv^^enckfeld. 
The  prophets  of  Zwickau  were  premillenarians,  but  this  no 
more  organized  the  thought  of  many  of  them  than  it  did  Luther's 
thought.     To  represent  the  whole  movement  as  a  socialistic, 

Literature. — Newman, . Albert  Henry:  "A  History  of  Anti-pedobaptism 
from  the  Rise  of  Pedobaptism  to  A.  D.  1609,"  Philadelphia,  1897  (with  exceeding 
good  and  full  bibliography  up  to  1896,  p.  395).— Vedder,  Henry  Clay:  "Bal- 
thasar  Hubmaier,  the  Leader  of  the  Anabaptists"  ("Heroes  of  the  Reformation" 
series),  New  York,  1905. — Arnold,  Gottfried:  " Unparteyische  Kirchen  und 
Ketzer-Historien  vom  Anfang  des  Neuen  Testaments  biss  auf  das  Jahr  Christi, 
1688,"  3  vols.,  Schaffhausen,  1688;  later  editions  in  4  vols.,  with  additional 
matter,  published  as  late  as  1740. — Beck,  Joseph  von:  "Geschichtsbiicher  der 
Wiedertaufer  in  (Esterreich-Ungarn  in  der  Zeit  von  1526  bis  1785,  gesammelt, 
erlautert  und  erganzt,"  Vienna,  1883.— Brenz,  Johann:  "Bedenken  etlicher 
dass  weltliche  Obrigkeit  der  Wiedertaufer  mit  leiblicher  Strafe  zu  wehren 
schuldig  sei,"  1536.— Bax,  Ernest  Belford:  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Ana- 
baptists" (Social  Side  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany),  London,  Swan  Son- 
nenschein,  1903.— Heath,  Richard:  "Anabaptism;  From  Its  Rise  at  Zwickau 
to  Its  Fall  at  Miinster,  1521-1536,"  London,  1895.— Bullinger,  Heinrich:  "Von 
dem  unverschampte  Frafel,  ergerlichem  verwyrren,  unnd  unwarhafftem  leeren, 
der  selbsgesanndten  Widertouffern  vier  gesprach  Bucher,"  Zurich,  1531;  "Der 
Widerteuffern  ursprung,  fiirgang,  secten,  wasen,  fiirneme  und  gemeine  jrer  leer 
Artickel  ...  mit  widerlegung  und  antwort  .  .  .  ,"  Zurich,  1560.— Burrage, 
Henry  Sweetser:  "A  History  of  the  Anabaptists  of  Switzerland,"  Philadelphia, 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  1881;  "The  Anabaptists  of  the  Sixteenth 
Century,"  in  "American  Society  of  Church  History  Papers,"  vol.  Ill,  New  York 
1891.— Erbkam,  Heinrich  Wilhelm:  "Geschichte  der  protestantischen  Sekten 
im  Zeitalter  der  Reformation,  Hamburg  und  Gotha,"  1848.— Loserth,  Johann: 
"Balthasar  Hubmaier  und  die  Anfange  der  Wiedertaufer  in  Mahren,"  Brunn, 
1893.— Keller,  Ludwig:  "Geschichte  der  Wiedertaufer  und  ihres  Reichs  zu 
Miinster  .  .  .  nebst  ungedruckten  Urkunden,"  Miinster,  1880;  "Ein  Apostel 
der  Wiedertaufer  (Hans  Denck),"  Leipsic,  1882.— Ritschl,  Albrecht:  "Ge- 
schichte des  Pietismus,"  vol.  I,  Bonn,  1880,  pp.  22-36.    _ 


5o6  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

communistic  proletarian  uprising  is  as  false  as  to  deny  with 
others  that  primitive  communism  had  no  proper  place  in  their 
teachings.  The  literature  is  happily  growing,  for  a  really 
balanced  and  historically  objective  estimate  of  the  movement  is 
much  needed. 

The  hypothesis  of  Ritschl  that  the  movement  is  the  outcome 
of  the  Tertiary  order  of  the  Franciscans  cannot  be  maintained. 
Indeed,  he  wavered  himself.  At  the  same  time  it  is  true  that 
many  of  the  things  that  gave  strength  to  the  reforming  orders 
found  also  expression  in  the  Anabaptist  movement.  Nor  was 
it  in  any  degree  a  truly  Protestant  movement,  if  by  Protestantism 
one  means  moral  and  religious  autonomy.  It  was  thoroughly 
under  the  Roman  Catholic  conception  of  external  authority,  only 
it  was  the  authority  of  a  book  and  a  written  law  rather  than 
a  tradition  and  a  pope. 

Everything  we  find  among  the  Anabaptists  one  also  finds  in 
the  New  Testament.  It  is  simply  a  matter  of  emphasis.  If  to 
take  the  New  Testament  literally  is  Protestantism,  then  as  over 
against  Luther,  Calvin,  and  Zwingli  the  Anabaptists  were  the 
real  Protestants.  They  based  their  teaching  upon  Luke's  esti- 
mate of  poverty  or  upon  the  communism  of  Acts,  or  the  freedom 
of  the  spirit  in  the  Pauline  sense,  or  upon  the  premillenarianism 
of  the  early  church  and  the  early  Gospels.  They  took  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  literally,  and  they  rejected  with  more  or  less  con- 
sistency all  things  not  commanded  by  the  Bible.  They  saw, 
generally,  as  the  reformers  did  not  see,  that  primitive  Christian- 
ity was  inherently  opposed  to  the  existing  and  non-Christian 
social  order.  They  found,  of  course,  no  warrant  in  the  New 
Testament  for  sacramental  magic,  because  it  is  not  there. 

All  this  is  not  new  in  church  history.  From  the  time  of  Jovin- 
ian  and  Claudius  of  Turin,  from  the  days  of  primitive  British 
Christianity  to  the  Waldensians  and  Lollards,  the  New  Testament 
has  always  raised  up  men  who  took  it  seriously  and  tested  by  it 
at  one  point  or  another  the  traditional  dogmatic  Christianity. 
And  as  dogmatic  Christianity  is  not,  in  fact,  built  upon  the  New 
Testament,  it  has  never  stood  the  test.     The  Anabaptist  move- 


THE  ANABAPTIST  MOVEMENT  507 

ment,  however,  has  no  real  unity.  Some  rejected  the  Old 
Testament  ^  or  believed  it  completely  fulfilled  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Some,  like  Thomas  Miinzer,  held  up  the  bloody  pages 
of  the  Old  Testament  for  imitation  in  the  style  of  Calvin  and 
John  Knox. 

What  made  the  movement  obnoxious  was  its  prevailingly 
rude  proletarian  character.  It  is  extreme  to  say,  with  Bax  and 
Heath,^  that  they  were  "socialists."  They  were  mainly  of  the 
oppressed  small-town  trading  class,  in  union  with  the  discon- 
tented peasants,  and  led  by  educated  and  even  learned  teachers 
like  Count  Schwenckfeld  von  Ossig  or  the  devout  and  temperate 
Hiibmaier. 

Indeed  the  revolt  of  Miinster  and  the  peasant  wars  were  made 
the  most  of  by  the  small  nobility  and  the  reform  leaders  to  ac- 
complish their  own  purpose  of  re-establishing  their  power  on  the 
basis  of  national  and  provincial  churches  as  heirs  of  the  rejected 
imperialism.  The  cold-hearted  callousness  of  Zwingli  in  tortur- 
ing his  former  friend  Balthasar  Hiibmaier  and  forcing  from  him 
on  pain  of  death  a  humiliating  and  false  confession  is  of  a  piece 
with  Calvin's  attitude  toward  Servetus  or  Luther's  to  Carlstadt.^ 

There  is  nothing  in  the  teachings  of  the  Anabaptists  that  can- 
not be  shown  to  at  one  time  or  another  have  had  the  support  of 
the  orthodox  reformers.  Mysticism  mingled  with  Luther's 
teaching,  legalism  and  bloody  rebellion  with  that  of  Calvin  and 
Knox.  Zwingli  was  staggered  by  infant  baptism,  and  did  emas- 
culate to  the  end  the  magic  sacramentarianism  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  It  was  a  question  of  power,  order,  and  submission  to 
the  new  heirs  of  Catholic  imperialism  and  not  a  question  of 
** evangelical  purity"  or  "dogmatic  correctness"  that  separated 
the  reformers  from  their  persecuted  and  despised  brethren. 

It  is  of  no  use  speculating  upon  the  possible  effects  of  another 
course  of  conduct.     The  triumph  of  Anabaptism  would  not 

'  BuUinger,  "Der  Wiedertaufer  Ursprung,"  IV,  pp.  139-140. 
'  In  the  books  cited  in  the  "Bibliography,"  and  in  articles  in  the  "Contempo- 
rary Review"  from  the  pen  of  Heath. 

'  Cj.  Jackson,  S.  M.:  "Huldreich  Zwingli,"  New  York,  1891,  pp.  243-265. 


5o8  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

have  given  us  "evangelical  Protestantism"  any  more  than  Purl 
tanism  did.  Puritanism  was  as  near  to  .\nabaptism — with  the 
exception  of  the  detail  of  adult  baptism,  which  is  not  of  the 
essence  of  the  movement  at  all — as  it  could  be.  Puritanism 
was  the  direct  heir  to  Lollardism  in  England.  Anabaptism  was 
legal,  under  the  authority  of  the  letter  of  Scripture,  and  yet  so 
excessively  individualistic  that  agreement  as  to  what  Scripture 
taught  was  impossible.  Save  under  the  tyranny  of  strong 
leadership,  all  united  political  action  was  impossible.  On  that 
rock  Anabaptism  split  and  went  to  pieces.  The  favorite  doc- 
trine of  the  Holy  Spirit  guiding  each  individual  to  an  infallible 
interpretation  of  the  letter  of  the  New  Testament  was  not 
conducive  to  harmony,  nor  did  it  make  submission  to  a  common 
compromise  easy. 

True  it  is  that  the  orthodox  reformers  also  professed  to  take 
the  letter  of  the  Scriptures  as  their  guide  and  also  claimed  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  they  neither  took  it  so  seriously 
as  the  Anabaptists,  nor  did  they  permit  themselves  to  be  led  by 
Scripture  too  far  away  from  the  interpretations  and  ideals  of  the 
Protestant  princes  in  Germany  or  the  military  Bourgoisie  in 
Switzerland.  They  were,  in  fact,  all  unconsciously  no  doubt, 
yet  completely  and  always  the  expression  of  the  sober-minded, 
well-balanced  national,  rising  middle-class.  The  Anabaptists 
represented  the  unorganized,  and  often  vague  and  ill-ordered 
aspirations  of  discontent  both  religious  and  social. 

It  is  vain,  therefore,  to  take  up  Schwenckfeld,  Thomas  Hun- 
ger, Balthasar  Hiibmaier,  Carlstadt,  and  the  others  to  search  for 
their  ethics.  They  had  rude  social  ideals  of  a  primitive  Chris- 
tian character.  They  took  the  New  Testament  very  seriously 
and  very  literally,  but  they  made  no  important  contribution  to 
systematic  Christian  ethics,  save  that  as  a  persecuted  minority 
some  of  them  learned  to  believe  in  a  real  liberty  of  conscience 
as  over  against  the  power  of  the  State.  Thus  Hiibmaier  de- 
manded liberty  of  conscience  in  his  well-known  tract  on  the 
"Heretics  and  Their  Burners."  *     But  this  was  not  the  attitude 

'  Sec  page  433. 


ETHICS  OF  THE  REFORMED   CHURCHES    509 

of  all.  Indeed,  the  Anabaptists  generally  held  that  the  church 
must  be  "pure"  and  that  discipline  even  to  the  complete  bann, 
shutting  the  unrepentant  completely  off  from  all  intercourse,  was 
a  Christian  duty.  It  is  also  claimed  that  Schwenckfeld  was 
on  the  side  of  complete  freedom  of  conscience,*  but  the  evidence 
is  not  given,  and  certainly  Schwenckfeld  believed  in  the  bann. 
Nor  does  liberty  of  conscience  lie  generally  along  the  line  of 
an  outward  authority,  even  when  interpreted  by  an  infallible 
spirit,  for  each  one  deems  his  particular  spirit  the  infallible  one, 
and  the  others  are  only  "lying  spirits."  Hence  the  great  fanati- 
cism and  the  endless  divisions  and  absurd  and  even  dangerous 
positions  taken  up  (bigamy,  strange  dresses,  etc.,  etc.)  by  many 
of  the  Anabaptists.  Nearly  all  the  reformers  talked  at  one 
time  or  another  about  Christian  liberty.  But  that  meant  the 
liberty  to  accept  the  new  evangelical  doctrines.  And  all  really 
approved  heartily  of  persecution,  including  Zwingli,  Bucer,  and 
Luther.  They  themselves  of  course  suffered  most  frightfully. 
No  mercy  was  shown  them  by  either  Protestants  or  Roman 
antagonists;  and,  divided  and  distracted  by  the  countless  differ- 
ences of  opinion  as  to  what  the  Spirit  spoke  or  the  Scriptures 
really  taught,  the  Anabaptist  movement  lost  ground  steadily 
and  directly.  It  failed  to  capture  the  Reformation,  and  it  sank 
back  into  the  humble  but  not  unfruitful,  though  narrow,  secta- 
rian life  in  which  it  still  survives  wherever  circumstances  favor 
its  survival.  The  great  Baptist  movement  in  England  and 
America  can  hardly  be  called  its  direct  outcome,  for  it  is  a 
child  of  the  evangelical  revival  and  has  only  superficial  resem- 
blance to  the  Anabaptist  religious-social  struggle. 

IV.      THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  REFORMED  CHURCHES 

Luther's  instinct  that  Zwingli  was  a  man  of  another  spirit 
was  undoubtedly  right.  Whether  the  difference  was  so  great 
that  co-operation  was  impossible  is  another  question.     The 

'Professor  Hartranft,  in  "Corpus  Schwenckfeldianorum,"  vol.  I,  p.  xxii  of 
introduction  (very  badly  done). 


5IO  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

moment  we  enter  upon  the  examination  of  the  ethics  of  the 
reformed  churches  as  distinguished  from  the  Lutheran  churches 
we  enter  into  a  quite  different  atmosphere. 

The  essential  being  of  Protestantism  cannot  be  sought  in  any 
theological  formula?.  The  later  creeds  of  Protestantism  are 
both  too  various  in  character  and  too  unprotestant  and  scholastic 
in  spirit  to  be  regarded  as  really  expressing  the  true  inward 
character  of  the  Reformation.  Cult  was,  also,  never  a  bond 
of  unity  but  rather  a  cause  of  division.  Neither  in  England 
nor  on  the  Continent  has  Protestantism  succeeded  as  yet  in 
expressing  herself  in  any  satisfactory  way  in  a  cult.  The  later 
movements  in  Protestantism,  Pietism  in  Germany  and  evangeli- 
calism in  England,  sought  to  define  Protestantism  in  terms  of 
feeling,  using  that  term  broadly;  but  the  analysis  was  incor- 
rect, and  so  far  as  success  was  attained  the  church  simply 
reverted  to  types  of  expression  long  familiar  in  the  Roman 
communion. 

The  reformers  themselves  hardly  clearly  realized  what  sepa- 
rated them  so  widely  from  Rome.  They  were  so  much  engaged 
in  concrete  struggles  against  visible  evils  that  the  inner  quality  of 
the  revolt  was  hidden  in  large  part  from  themselves.  In  point 
of  fact  Protestantism  was  a  long  step  forward  toward  spiritual 
and  intellectual  autonomy.  It  was  a  rebellion  against  external 
authority  in  the  spiritual  realm;  and  a  splendid  attempt  to 
relate  the  spiritual  adult  as  a  self-conscious  member  in  the 
family  of  God  to  the  great  spiritual  experiences  of  the  past. 
The  essence  of  Protestantism  is  not  its  elements  of  immediacy  in 
experience  of  God  (mysticism  as  generally  defined,  and  the 
sentimental  phases  of  evangelicalism),  but  personal  access  to 
him  and  experience  of  him  in  all  life  and  all  history. 

As  Protestantism,  therefore,  has  come  more  and  more  to  self- 
consciousness  it  has  become  increasingly  historical  and  critical. 
It  has  definitely  widened  its  conceptions  of  God  in  history.  It 
has  slowly  come  to  recognize  the  need  for  vast  variety  of  experi- 
ences and  the  legitimacy  of  great  varieties  of  interpretation  of 
them. 


ETHICS   OF  THE   REFORMED   CHURCHES    511 

From  this  point  of  view  it  was  a  fortunate  thing  that  Protes- 
tantism had  many  roots  in  the  past  and  that  from  various  direc- 
tions leaders  came  to  give  form  to  her  energies.  Humanism  had 
as  such  no  quarrel  with  the  Roman  imperialism,  although 
exceedingly  critical  of  her  ways.  But  humanism  gave  a  Protes- 
tant leader  who  was  more  than  a  humanist  ere  he  had  done  his 
work.     Huldreich  Zwingli,*  though  primarily  religious,  remained 

*  Zwingli,  Huldreich  or  Ulrich,  the  great  reformer  of  German  Switzerland,  was 
born  January  i,  1484,  in  Wildenhaus,  in  the  Toggenburg  Valley,  about  forty 
miles  from  Zurich.  His  parents  were  well-to-do  and  their  connections  good. 
He  was  almost  raised  in  Protestantism.  His  patriotism  carried  him  completely 
over.  He  died  on  the  battle-field  at  Cappel,  October  11,  1531,  where  Zurich  lost 
the  day  to  Rome's  Forest  Cantons. 

A  critical  edition  of  his  works  is  in  preparation,  but  will  not  be  completed  for 
some  time  to  come.  ("Huldreich  Zwingli's  samtliche  Werke  unter  Mitwirkung 
des  Zwingli-Vereins  in  Zurich  herausgegeben  von  Emil  Egli  und  Georg  Finsler" 
["Corpus  Reformatorum,"  vol.  LXXXIX,  etc.],  Leipsic,  Heinsius,  1908,  seq.; 
third  volume  appearing  in  parts,  1910.)  The  best  edition  (accessible)  is  that  of 
Melchior  Schuler  and  Johannes  Schulthess,  8  vols.,  in  11  parts,  with  a  supple- 
ment (1861),  Zurich,  1829-1842.  The  best  English  biography  is  that  of  Samuel 
M.  Jackson  ("Huldreich  Zwingli,  the  Reformer  of  German  Switzerland,  1484- 
1531"  ["Heroes  of  the  Reformation"  series].  New  York,  1901);  a  somewhat 
smaller  handy  biography  is  that  by  Samuel  Simpson  ("Life  of  Ulrich  Zwingli, 
the  Swiss  Patriot  and  Reformer,"  New  York,  1902).  The  best  in  German  is 
that  of  Rudolph  Staehelin,  "Huldreich  Zwingli,  sein  Leben  und  Wirken  nach 
den  Quellen  dargestellt,"  Basel,  1895-1897,  2  vols.  A  good  life,  though  older, 
is  that  in  the  series  "Vater  der  Reformirten  Kirche,"  by  Raget  Christoffel 
"Huldreich  Zwingli,  Leben  und  ausgewahlte  Schriften,"  Elberfeld,  1857,  of 
which  the  first  part,  the  "Leben,"  has  been  translated  into  English  by  J.  Choch- 
ran,  "Zwingli;  or,  the  Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  Switzerland,"  a  life  of  the 
reformer,  with  some  notices  of  his  time  and  contemporaries,  Edinburgh,  T. 
and  T.  Clark,  1858.  Other  literature  is:  Baur,  August:  "Zwingli's  Theologie, 
ihr  Werden  und  ihr  System,"  Halle,  1885,  1889,  2  vols.  Sigwart,  Christoph: 
"Ulrich  Zwingli:  der  Character  seiner  Theologie  mit  besonderer  Riicksicht  auf 
Picus  von  Mirandula  dargestellt,"  Stuttgart  und  Hamburg,  1855.  Zeller, 
Eduard:  "Das  theologische  System  Zwingli's  in  seinen  Grundziigen  darges- 
tellt," in  "Theologische  Jahrbiicher,"  edited  by  F.  Chr.  Baur  and  E.  Zeller, 
Tubingen,  vol.  XH,  1853,  pp.  94-144,  245-294,  445-560,  and  "Uber  den  Ur- 
sprung  und  Character  des  Zwinglischen  Lehrbegrififs,  mit  Beziehung  auf  die 
neueste  Darstellung  derselben"  in  "Theologische  Jahrbiicher,"  vol.  XVI,  1857, 
pp.  1-59.  Schweizer,  Alexander:  "Die  Entwickelung  des  Moralsystems  in  der 
Reformirten  Kirche,"  in  "Theologische  Studien  und  Kritiken,"  1850,  pp.  5-78, 
288-327,  554-580;  "Zwingli's  Bedeutung  neben  Luther,  Festrede,"  Zurich, 
January   i,    1884.     Usteri,   Johann   Martin:    "Initia  Zwinglii:    Beitrage  zur 


512  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

under  the  influence  of  humanism  even  after  the  religious, 
ethical,  and  patriotic  elements  had  gained  the  hegemony  in  his 
practical  activity.  The  patriotic  character  of  Zwingli's  Protest- 
antism has  often  been  pointed  out.  But  this  was  characteristic 
of  all  the  early  reformers.  Wyclif  stood  out  for  England  against 
the  papal  cosmopolitan  imperialism.  The  appeal  of  Luther 
was  to  Germany  against  papal  exploitation,  and  Zwingli  was 
aroused  by  the  abuses  of  conscription  and  indulgences  to  give 
new  ethical  and  religious  life  to  his  nation.  i 

Zwingli  nowhere  works  out  any  systematic  ethics,  and  the 
writings  in  which  he  most  systematically  unfolds  his  thought, 
like  "De  vera  et  falsa  Religione,"  ^  reveal  a  penetrating  and 
splendidly  furnished,  but  not  a  philosophically  organizing  mind. 
His  exegetical  works  reveal  the  earnestness  of  his  ethical  interest, 
and  much  ethical  insight  ^  but  not  ethical  system. 

Zwingli's  thought  starts  from  his  conception  of  God.^  With 
him  the  greatness  and  the  power  of  God,  his  righteousness  and 
justice,  his  creative  power,  and  his  constant  preserving  activity 
are  the  leading  notes.'*  It  is  not  just  to  charge  him  with  leaning 
toward  philosophical  pantheism  except  in  so  far  as  all  reformed 
theology,  under  the  distinct  influence  of  Stoicism,  exalts  God  as 
all  in  all,  and  emphasizes  rather  his  power  than  his  goodness. 
This  power  shines  as  well  in  the  election  of  men  to  life  as  in 
creation.^  At  the  same  time  Zwingli  had  a  firm  grasp  of  the 
fact  that  Jesus  Christ  had  taught  love  as  the  final  and  only 
possible  fulfilment  of  law.®  Following  Paul  in  his  argument  in 
Romans,  but  still  in  somewhat  too  scholastic  dress,  he  develops 

Geschichte  der  Studien  und  der  Geistesentwickelung  Zwingli's  in  dcr  Zcit  vor 
Beginn  der  reformatorischen  Thatigkeit,  nach  bishcr  zum  Teil  unbekannten 
Quellen,"  in  "Theologische  Studien  und  Kritiken,"  1885,  pp.  607-672,  and  1886, 
pp.  95-159.  For  other  literature,  see:  Jackson's  "Life,"  pp.  xxi-xxvi,  or  Simp- 
son's, pp.  280-291. 

'  In  vol.  Ill,  p.  145,  opera  omnia. 

'  His  e.xcgetical  works  are  contained  in  vols.  V,  VI,  parts  i  and  2,  opera  omnia. 

'  "De  vera  ct  falsa  Religione,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  155-165,  opera  omnia. 

*  Cf.  "Sermones  in  Psalmos"  (German),  vol.  IV,  particularly  pp.  216-219. 

*  "De  vera  ct  falsa  Religione,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  178,  opera  omnia. 

°  "Do  vera  ct  falsa  Religione,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  205  fl,  opera  omnia. 


ETHICS   OF  THE  REFORMED   CHURCHES    513 

the  conception  of  Christian  freedom.  Law  is  the  eternal  will  \ 
of  God/  but  this  law  is  deeper  than  the  civil  or  ceremonial  laws 
that  concern  themselves  with  the  external  man,  and  which 
change;  in  the  true  sense  law  never  changes.  Love  alone  ena- 
bles us  to  keep  this  law,  whose  substance  is  contained  in  the 
injunction  to  love  God  and  one's  neighbor.  There  is  in  Zwingli, 
as  in  reformed  theology  later,  a  general  confusion  introduced  by 
the  Stoic  conception  on  the  one  hand  of  a  "natural  law,"  eternal 
and  unchangeable,  and  on  the  other  of  "a  supernatural  law," 
as  in  the  written  word. 

Zwingli  laid  great  stress  on  the  written  word  as  the  sole 
authority,  but  even  here  he  is  not  always  clear.  In  1522  he 
could  write:  "For  who  would  not  joyfully  accept  what  was  de- 
cided by  the  concurrent  opinion  of  all  Christians,"  ^  although 
he  was  constantly  laying  stress  upon  the  inward  witness  of  the 
Spirit  as  needful  even  for  the  acceptance  of  Scripture.  Nor 
is  he  clear  in  regard  to  the  authority  of  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testaments.^  At  times  he  seems  ready  to  reject  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, but  in  fact  it  often  is  the  real  basis  of  his  thinking,  and 
through  it  there  enters  into  his  ethics  a  certain  legalism  which 
still  haunts  all  ethics  within  Protestantism.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment is,  in  point  of  fact,  taken  over  even  in  its  ceremonial 
phases.  For  baptism  is  the  continuation  of  circumcision,  and 
the  Lord's  Supper  of  the  Passover.* 

It  is,  indeed,  a  mistaken  judgment  that  Zwingli  was  the  most 
protestant  of  the  reformers.  He  had  a  wider  outlook  in  some 
respects  than  the  others,  due  to  his  early  humanistic  training 
and  the  fact  that  he  never  was  really  Roman  Catholic  in  his 

'  "Lex  nihil  aliud  est,  quam  sterna  dei  voluntas,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  203,  opera  omnia 
(Augustinian). 

*  "Letter  to  Erasmus  Fabricius,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  7-16,  opera  omnia. 
3  C}.  "  De  delectu  et  libero  ciborum  esu,"  vol.  I,  p.  8. 

*  See  for  the  first  the  argument  in  "  In  catabaptistarum  strophas  elenchus, 
"Opera,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  357-437  (translated  from  the  Latin  into  English  by  Henry 
Preble  and  George  William  Gilmore,  pp.  123-258,  in  "Selected  Works  of  Huld- 
reich  Zwingli,  .  .  .  translated  for  the  first  time  from  the  originals  .  .  .  edited 
by  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson,"  New  York,  1901),  and  for  the  second,  see  "Ein 
klare  underrichtung  vom  Nachtmal  Christi,"  "Opera,"  vol,  II,  p.  458- 


514  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


/ 


deeper  religious  life.  But  for  Zwingli  human  nature  was  as 
corrupt  as  for  Luther  or  Cah'in,  only  Zwingli  and  Calvin  empha- 
sized the  will  of  God  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  "election" 
possible  for  heathen.  There  was  no  "natural  goodness"  for 
Zwingli.  All  came  by  grace,  but  grace  was  the  free  gift  of  the 
sovereign  secrecy  of  the  divine  will.  Men  were  born  diseased, 
although  not  "sinful"  or  "guilty"  until  the  disease  (morbus) 
i^  asserted  itself  in  activity.* 

In  Zwingli  scholastic  Aristotelianism  is  indeed  largely  dis- 
placed by  the  great  ethical  conceptions  of  Paul,  but  Augustine 
is  still  Paul's  interpreter  and  Stoicism  is  still  influential  in  his 
ethics.  It  is  true  that  sacramental  magic  disappears  more 
largely  from  Zwingli's  thought  than  from  some  other  reformed 
types.  This  is,  however,  because  he  pressed  home,  as  even 
Calvin  did  not,  the  sovereign  character  of  God's  elective  grace. 
In  reformed  theology  there  is  really  no  room  logically  for  sacra- 
mental magic. 

Nor  was  Zwingli  any  more  modern  than  Luther,  Calvin,  or 
Melanchthon  in  his  treatment  of  opponents.  With  the  Ana- 
baptist radicals  he  was  as  cruel  and  severe  as  Luther  with  the 
peasants,  Melanchthon  with  the  "false  prophets,"  or  Calvin  with 
Servetus;  and  for  the  same  reason  they  seemed  to  him  to  dis- 
credit and  endanger  the  whole  reformatory  movement."  Even 
Luther  seemed  to  Zwingli  too  violent  and  bitter.^ 

'  "Sic  ergo  diximus  originalem  contagionem  morbum  esse,  non  peccatum, 
quod  peccatum  cum  culpa  conjunctum  est:  culpa  vero  ex  commisso  vel  admisso 
ejus  nascitur  qui  facinus  desegnavit."  "  De  peccato  originali  declaratio  ad  urba- 
num  Rhegium,"  vol.  Ill,  opera  omnia,  p.  629  (in  year  1526). 

*  It  is  interesting  to  analyze  the  charges  Zwingli  makes  against  the  Anabap- 
tists. They  were  guilty  of  (i)  going  unbelted  or  girded  with  ropes  to  proph- 
esy in  the  market-places  and  squares.  (2)  They  boasted  that  they  had  all 
things  in  common,  and  threatened  with  God's  anger  those  who  did  not.  (3) 
They  cried  out,  "  Woe  to  Zurich."  (4)  They  reviled  the  ministers  of  both  Church 
and  State.  (5)  They  only  went  where  the  Gospel  had  already  been  preached 
and  made  confusion.  (6)  They  had  an  unpaid  ministry.  (7)  They  proclaimed 
salvation  by  obedience  to  the  law.    (8)  They  had  wives  in  common  and  deserted 

'  C/.  the  tone  of  the  "Am ica  exegesis  .  .  .  ad  Martinum  Lutherum,"  vol.  Ill, 
opera  omnia,  pp,  459  f],  especially  pp.  462  and  561. 


ETHICS   OF  THE  REFORMED   CHURCHES     515 

Zwingli  was  national  in  his  thought  and  feeling.  This  colors 
his  ethics  and  his  theology.  His  ambition  was  an  elected  holy 
nation  for  the  establishment  of  God's  purpose.  Plato's  "  Repub- 
lic" exercised  here  undoubted  influence/  for  the  visible  church  is 
for  Zwingli  a  mixed  assembly.  Only  the  invisible  church  is 
inerrant  and  holy.^ 

This  visible  church,  therefore,  is  in  parts,  and  is  set  apart  in 
God's  council  for  the  manifestation  of  his  will.  If,  therefore,  the 
cantons  were  to  rise  to  their  opportunity  they  must  exhibit  their 
election  by  their  works.  Thus  Zwingli's  preaching  took  on  a 
national  ethical  character.  He  attacked  the  sale  of  Swiss 
soldiers  and  the  exploitation  of  the  cantons  by  Rome.  The 
cantons  become  practically  for  Zwingli  the  visible  church,  be- 
cause State  and  Church  (visible)  cannot  be  separated.  Nor  does 
Zwingli  think  highly  of  any  higher  unity  among  the  churches. 
He  prefers  a  unity  of  spirit  binding  together  national  churches,^ 
and  any  outward  unity  has  for  him  but  little  meaning.  At  this 
point  Zwingli  marks  distinctly  the  national  character  of  the 
whole  Reformation  movement. 

His  fierce  attacks  upon  the  Anabaptists  were  again  largely 
national  and  political.  The  maintenance  of  civil  authority  was 
one  of  the  functions  of  the  visible  church,  and  the  purity  of  the 
visible  church  was  one  of  the  direct  responsibilities  of  the  civil 
government.*  Like  a  good  many  religious  leaders,  he  had  little 
objection  to  centralized  authority  in  religion  as  long  as  he  was 

their  children.  (9)  That  they  were  lazy  and  had  only  other  people's  goods  in 
common.  (10)  They  forbade  oaths  and  appeals  to  the  magistrates.  (11)  They 
rejected  the  whole  Old  Testament.  (12)  Preached  excommunication  for  all 
who  fell  into  sin.  (13)  That  men  should  not  carry  arms  and  weapons.  (14) 
That  excommunication  should  be  the  limit  of  churchly  punishment.  (15)  That 
Christians  had  no  citizenship  here. 

'  Sigwart .  seems  to  overestimate  the  influence  upon  Zwingli  of  Picus  von 
Mirandula  and  to  ignore  too  much  the  direct  influence  of  Plato.  Cj.  Sigwart, 
"Ulrich  Zwingli,"  1855. 

*  Zwingli's  doctrine  of  the  church  he  sets  forth  clearly  and  at  large  in  the 
■'Antibolum,"  "Adversus  Emserum,"  vol,  III,  opera  omnia,  pp.  125-135. 

'  Cf.  Epist.  CLIII,  vol.  VIII,  p.  549,  opera  omnia. 

*Cf.  "Ein  Kurze  christenliche  ynleitung,"  etc.,  vol.  I,  pp.  549-582,  opera 


5i6  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

the  authority.  For,  although  Zwingli  stoutly  protested  against 
interfering  with  the  freedom  of  the  congregation,  in  point  of 
fact,  the  Swiss  autocracy,  which  was  supreme,  was  at  Zwingli's 
own  advice  exceedingly  tyrannical/  Zwingli,  like  Luther  and 
Calvin,  accepted  the  situation  created  by  Constantine  as  the 
permanent  relation  between  Church  and  State,  and  he  and  they 
were  quite  blind  to  the  interminable  confusion  this  ecclesiastical 
Byzantianism  wrought  and  still  produces. 

On  the  other  hand,  Zwingli  was  an  admirable  leader.  Warm, 
loving,  and  fearless,  he  appealed  to  many  hearts  to  whom  even 
Luther  might  not  have  found  access.  And  although  his  work 
was  to  some  extent  swallowed  up  in  the  Calvinistic  movement 
of  a  later  day,  it  is  an  honorable  fact  in  Swiss  history  that 
Zwingli  was  an  outspoken  and  fearless  Protestant  quite  as  early 
as  Luther.  He  maintained  his  peace  with  the  Vatican  longer 
than  Luther  could  do,  because  at  Rome  he  was  not  only  feared, 
but  he  was  confused  with  the  humanists,^  with  whom  Rome 
ever  felt  itself  in  a  certain  sympathy,  if  only  as  a  counterbalance 
in  Rome's  complicated  policy  to  the  monks  and  orders  who  gave 
the  curia  great  trouble. 

The  outcome  of  the  reformed  position  in  ethics  can,  however, 
be  better  studied  in  Bucer  and  Calvin. 

Butzer  or  Bucer '  was  a  remarkable  figure  as  counsel  for  and 
helper  of  the  early  churches.     He  came  first  under  the  influence 

'  C/.  "Ratschlag  von  den  Bildern  und  der  Mess,"  vol.  I,  pp.  583/".,  opera 
omnia. 

*  C}.  vol.  I.  p.  354,  and  vol.  VII,  p.  178  i}. 

^  Butzer,  Martin,  born  1491,  in  Schlettstadt,  Alsace,  and  died  in  Cambridge  in 
1551-  He  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Strasburg,  and  is  connected  in  his  way  of 
thinking  with  the  Swiss  Reformation.  In  Baum's  book,  "Capito  und  Butzer, 
Strassburgs  Reformatoren.  Nach  ihrem  handschriftlichcn  Briefschatze,  ihrcn 
gedruckten  Schriften  und  andcren  glcichzeitigen  Quellcn  dargcstellt"  (Johann 
Wilhclm  Baum),  Elberfeld,  i860  ("Vater  der  reformirten  Kirche,"  vol.  Ill),  is 
a  catalogue  of  Butzer's  printed  works  (pp.  586-611).  There  is  good  reason  for 
accepting  him  as  the  author  of  the  wonderfully  popular  book,  "  Ain  schener  Dialog 
un  gcsprech  zwischen  aim  Pfarrer  vnd  aim  Schulthayss  bctreffend  alien  ubel 
Stand  der  gaystlichen.  Vnd  dcss  handlijg  der  weltlichen,"  which  went  rapidly 
through  thirteen  eriitions;  cj.  "Archiv  fur  Reformationsgeschichte,"  Nr.  13,  IV, 
Jahrgang,  Heft  i  (1906),  Alfred  Gcitzc's  article,  pp.  1-64. 


ETHICS  OF   THE  REFORMED   CHURCHES     517 

of  Luther  (15 18)  and  then  under  the  influence  of  the  Swiss 
reformers,  and  sought  without  much  success  to  mediate  between 
the  two  types  of  thinking.  His  ethics  have  only  significance  in 
that  he  sought  to  establish  theoretically  the  right  relation 
between  Church  and  State.  Undoubtedly  his  work  at  this  point 
greatly  influenced  the  English  Reformation.  His  work,  "De 
Regno  Christi  Jesu,"  in  two  books,  addressed  to  the  English 
king  in  1557,  struggles  with  the  question  of  the  two  swords. 
The  two  things,  he  finds,  that  are  among  all  men  are  a  divine 
cult  and  a  civil  government.*  He  seeks  then,  somewhat  vainly, 
to  distribute  the  power  and  the  responsibility.  The  attempt  was 
worth  making,  but  is  not  very  successful.  There  is  a  constant 
dualism  maintained  between  "The  Kingdom  of  Christ"  and 
''The  Kingdom  of  the  World";  both  are  from  God,  but  as  in  all 
reformed  thinking,  in  the  last  analysis  the  church  is  really 
supreme.^  There  is  also  the  same  terrible  failure  to  grasp  the 
real  significance  of  the  Old  Testament.  On  the  basis  of  exces- 
sive literalism  and  traditional  interpretation  there  arose  an 
ethics  which  was  of  the  law  rather  than  of  the  Gospel. 

On  the  transformation  of  the  bread  and  wine  Bucer  held 
rather  with  the  Swiss,  but  he  had  very  high  notions  about  the 
significance  of  the  partaking.  His  position  is  the  high-church 
position  of  Calvin.  And  with  Calvin  he  shares  an  almost  slavish 
conception  of  the  authority  of  Scripture.  Like  the  English 
reformers,  he  was  really  more  interested  in  the  political  than  the 
dogmatic  or  ethical  side  of  the  Reformation.  He  was  clear- 
sighted enough  to  see  into  what  failures  and  disasters  a  divided 
Protestantism  must  enter.  He  was  not  clear-sighted  enough  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  only  on  the  foundation  of  a  broad,  com- 
prehensive organization  could  the  Reformation  rest.  He  was 
as  hard  and  bitter  against  the  poor  Anabaptists  as  any  of  the 
leaders,  although  he  was  willing  to  take  Zwingli,  Calvin,  and 
Luther  under  one  roof. 

'  "Cultus  divinus  et  civilis  gubernatio,"  preface  to  the  treatise,  "De  Regno 
Christi  Jesu." 
'  Cj.  p.  12  with  its  scene  between  Ambrose  and  Theodosius. 


^ 


518  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  type  of  his  thinking  is  allied  to  the  Swiss  reformers, 
because  he  uses  the  Bible  in  the  same  way,  and  with  a  mechan- 
ical literalism  which  at  times  makes  it  a  very  misleading  book. 


V.      THE  ETHICS  OF  JOHN  CALVm 

The  ethics  of  reformed  theology  received  an  almost  classic 
formulation  at  the  hands  of  Calvin.^  There  is  a  certain  lofty 
simplicity  about  the  ethics  that  has  made  them  exceedingly 
influential,  although  the  ethics  are  generally  lost  sight  of  in  the 
dogmatics. 

On  the  ethical  side  Calvin  introduced  the  reformed  churches 
again  to  scholasticism  with  its  closed  system  given  on  authority, 
and  its  rationalizing  methods.  He,  like  the  scholastics,  re- 
garded the  explication  of  the  closed  system  of  truth  as  of  primary 
importance. 

His  ethics  are  contained  in  the  "Institutions"  ^  as  well  as  in 
his  commentaries  upon  the  Ten  Commandments  and  numer- 
ous tracts  and  sermons.     The  outline  is  clear  and  convincing. 


'  The  literature  is  scant  and  unsatisfactory.  The  classic  histories,  i.  e.,  C.  F. 
Staudlin,  W.  M.  L.  de  Wette,  W.  Gass,  C.  E.  Luthardt,  Th.  Ziegler,  either  make 
no  contribution  or  confuse  the  subject  by  failing  to  grasp  Calvin's  central  thought. 
There  remain  only:  Lobstein,  Paul:  "Die  Ethik  Calvin's  in  ihren  Grundziigen 
entworfen,"  Strasburg,  1877.  Schweizer,  Alexander:  "Die  Entwickelung  des 
Moralsystems  in  der  Reformirten  Kirche,"  in  "  Theologische  Studien  und 
Kritiken,"  XXIII  (1850),  pp.  5-78,  288-327,  554-580.  Kuyper,  Abraham: 
"Calvinism:  Si.x  lectures  (on  the  Stone  Foundation)  delivered  (1898-1899)  in 
the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton,"  1899.  A  singularly  worthless  book 
of  indiscriminate  misjudgments.  The  Calvin  celebration  is  bringing  a  great 
and  welcome  addition  to  the  literature  of  Calvin,  but  so  far  his  ethics 
seem  neglected.  C/.  the  author's  article  in  the  "  Hibbard  Journal "  for  October, 
1908,  of  which,  by  permission,  large  use  has  been  made.  Kampschulte,  F. 
Wilhelm:  "Calvin,  seine  Kirche  und  sein  Staat  in  Genf.,"  Leipsic,  1869,  1899 
Oast  vol.  posthumous).  Choicy,  Eugfene:  "La  theocratic  k  Geneve  au  temps  de 
Calvin,"  Geneva,  1897.  Troeltsch,  Ernst:  "Der  Calvinismus,"  in  "Die  Kultur 
der  Gegenwart,"  teil  I,  abteilung  IV,  "Die  christliche  Religion,"  pp.  333-361, 
Berlin  and  Leipsic,  1906.  Doumergue,  E.:  "Le  Protestantisme  au  Moyen 
Age,"  Montauban,  1889.  Doumergue,  E.:  "Jean  Calvin,  Ics  hommes  et  les 
choscs  de  son  temps,"  Lausanne,  1899,  sq.  (3  vols,  appeared  up  to  1905). 

'"Institutio  ChristianoE  Religionis,"  books  III  and  IV. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  JOHN  CALVIN  519 

It  is  throughout  a  theological  ethics.  The  whole  scheme  is 
worked  out  on  the  basis  of  man's  relation  to  an  omnipotent  and 
holy  God.  Man  is  utterly  sinful  and  hostile  to  God,  and  practi- 
cally, for  Calvin,  can  sustain  no  ethical  relation  to  him  at  all. 
Man  is  cut  off  from  God  as  completely  as  a  country  at  war  with 
another  is  cut  off  from  it.  Ethics  can  therefore  only  be  spoken 
of  after  regeneration.  "The  object  of  regeneration  is  to  bring 
the  life  of  believers  into  harmony  with  God."  *  Thus  we  are 
restored  to  the  image  of  God  and  are  made  "ethically  free." 
Only  after  regeneration  do  the  Scriptures  really  fulfil  their 
function  of  instilling  and  "implanting  in  our  minds"  the  amor 
justiticB  "or  love  of  righteousness"  which  we  lost  at  the  fall. 
Thus  there  must  be  restored  to  us  the  active  ethical  principle, 
and  in  the  written  word,  but  particularly  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, we  have  a  norm^  which  will  prevent  us  going  astray  if 
we  use  it  properly. 

But  the  Scriptures  are  not  the  basis  of  the  ethical  life  which 
is  thus  founded  upon  authority.  That  basis  is  the  Scriptural 
church.  For  the  Roman  imperialism  Calvin  simply  substitutes 
a  Scriptural  imperialism.  The  Biblical  church  is  the  ultimate 
and  final  authority  over  the  really  regenerate  man.  Hence  the 
theory  of  the  church  is  very  important  in  Calvinism,  and  Calvin 
devotes  a  great  deal  of  space  to  it.^  In  the  church  God  has 
sought  to  secure  the  effectual  preaching  of  the  Gospel  by 
depositing  this  treasure  with  the  church."  Calvin's  ethics  are 
therefore  based  upon  a  church  of  divine  right.^  God  has  ap- 
pointed her  teachers  and  given  her  the  sacraments.  God  is 
Father  and  the  church  is  mother.'  Beyond  her  pale  there  is 
not  only  ordinarily  no  salvation,  but  no  really  ethical  life,  for  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  is  a  "benefit  so  peculiar  to  the  church  that 
we  cannot  enjoy  it  unless  we  continue  in  the  communion  of  the 

'  "Scopus  regenerationis,"  "Ins.,"  Ill,  6  :  i. 

^  "Norma  praescripta,"  "Ins.,"  Ill,  6  :  2. 

^  "Ins.,"  book  IV,  i,  2,  4,  8,  9,  11-14,  and  many  passages  in  "Sermons,"  etc. 

*  "Thesaurum  hunc  apud  ecclesiam  deposuit,"  "Ins.,"  IV,  i  :  i. 

*  "De  jure  divino." 

*  "Ut,  quibus  ipse  est  pater,  ecclesia  etiam  mater  sit,"  "Ins.,"  IV,  i  :  i. 


520  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

church."  ^  To  this  church  are  committed  the  "keys,"  and  the 
ministers  of  a  true  church  are  constantly  not  only  shutting  out 
the  unrepentant,  but  continually  opening  the  doors  by  "the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  or  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments." ^ 

The  Christian  is  bound  by  the  creed  (!)  to  believe  "  the  church," 
for  the  word  "in"  is  an  interpolation,^  and  in  the  bosom  of  this 
church  we  must  abide  at  the  peril  of  eternal  death.  It  is  this 
visible  sacramental  church  that  is  our  mother,  "since  there  is  no 
other  means  of  entering  into  life  unless  she  nourish  us  at  her 
breast,  and  unless  we  remain  under  her  care  and  pilotship  until 
stripped  of  our  flesh  we  become  as  angels.  For  our  weakness 
does  not  allow  us  to  leave  school  until  as  scholars  we  have  done 
with  life.  Moreover,  outside  her  bounds  there  is  no  hope  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sin  nor  any  other  salvation."  * 

No  really  Protestant,  i.  e.,  autonomous  ethics  can  flourish  on 
this  basis.  The  church  officers  controlling  the  sacraments  and 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  become  the  directors  of  men's 
consciences.  "As  anciently  he  did  not  confine  himself  merely 
to  the  law,  but  added  priests  as  interpreters,  ...  so  in  the 
present  day  he  would  have  us  not  only  be  attentive  to  this  reading 
but  has  appointed  masters  to  give  us  aid.  In  this  there  is  a 
double  advantage,  for  on  the  one  hand  he  by  an  admirable  test 
proves  our  obedience  when  we  listen  to  his  ministers  just  as  to 
him,"  etc.,  etc.^ 

This  is  exactly  the  substructure  of  the  Roman  Catholic  ethics 
of  authority.  For  having  convinced  ourselves  that  we  are 
dealing  with  a  true  Biblical  church,  we  are  then  to  listen  to  its 
"priests"  or  ministers  exactly  as  to  God  himself.  This  is  a  test 
of  our  obedience,  and  these  "ministers"  have  the  power  of  the 
keys  to  open  and  close  to  us  the  doors  of  forgiveness.  This  is 
simply  Roman  Catholicism  without  the  name  Roman. 

'"Ins.,"  IV,  I  :  22.  '"'Im.,"  IV,  i  :  22.  ^"Ins.,"  IV,   i  :  2. 

*"Adde  quod  extra  ejus  grcmium  nulla  est  spcranda  peccatorum  remissio, 
ncc  alia  salus,"  "Ins.,"  book  IV,  i  :  4. 
""Ins.,"  IV,  I  .-5. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   JOHN   CALVIN  521 

The  interest  of  all  high-church  Calvinism  in  the  sacraments 
is  in  obtaining  a  guarantee  of  a  true  and  therefore  authoritative 
church.     Thus  Calvin  in  1544,  in  an  address  to  the  Imperial 
Diet,  sums  up  Christianity  in  practically  four  things:  a  knowl-    ] 
edge  of  the  way  in  which  God  must  be  duly  worshipped;   the    i 
knowledge  of  the  source  from  which  salvation  is  to  be  obtained ; 
the  right  method  of  administering  the  grace-imparting  sacra- 
ments;   and  the  maintenance  of  a  duly   authorized   ministry. 
To  this  ministry  is  committed  the  care  and  preservation  of  this  t 
sacred  knowledge  and  the  administration  of  the  grace-imparting 
sacraments. 

This  church,  therefore,  of  Calvin's  thought  is  no  longer  the 
family  circle  gathered  about  Jesus  the  elder  Brother  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Father.  It  is  no  democracy  of  believers  banded 
together  for  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom,  but  a  divine 
sacramental  organization  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  ruling  men's 
thoughts  and  conduct. 

As  ethics,  therefore,  is  taught  on  the  basis  of  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments by  an  authoritative  church,  it  is  all-important  to 
know  what  is  the  true  church.  The  notes  as  given  by  Calvin  are 
quite  clear.  It  is  the  whole  body  of  mankind  scattered  over  the 
world,  who  (i)  profess  to  worship  one  God  and  Christ,  (2)  who 
by  baptism  are  initiated  into  the  faith,  (3)  who  by  partaking  of 
the  common  table  profess  unity  in  doctrine  and  love,  (4)  who 
have  agreement  in  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  (5)  lastly,  who 
conserve  the  ministry  for  the  preaching  of  this  word.  In  this 
church  there  are  hypocrites  whom  our  ignorance  of  the  heart 
must  tolerate;  but  as  we  must  believe  the  invisible  church,  so  we 
must  seek  the  communion  of  this  visible  one.*  In  lieu  of  full 
certainty  as  to  the  election  we  must  accept  as  true  members  of 
the  church  all  who  (i)  confess  the  faith,  (2)  are  regular  in  con- 
duct, (3)  who  participate  in  the  sacraments,  and  (4)  unite  in 
acknowledging  with  us  the  same  God  and  Christ.^  Hence  the 
form  of  the  church  is  wherever  we  see  the  word  of  God  sincerely 
preached  and  the  sacraments  duly  administered.'    Where  this 

1 IV,  I  :  7.  2 IV,  I  :  8.  '  IV,  i  :  9. 


522  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

is  the  case,  no  one  should  separate  himself  from  the  church  or 
question  her  authority.  To  impair  her  authority  is  to  impugn 
the  authority  of  God  himself.  No  crime  is  more  atrocious  or 
sacrilegious  than  to  break  this  bond.*  We  must  even  put  up 
with  minute  errors  of  doctrine,  for  "we  must  either  have  no 
church  at  all,  or  we  must  condone  hallucinations  in  such  things 
as  one  may  be  ignorant  of  without  injury  to  the  substance  of 
faith.'  In  conduct  our  tolerance  must  be  even  larger,  for  doc- 
trine is  even  more  important.'  In  this  church  we  have  constant 
forgiveness  of  sin,  and  to  impart  this  blessing  Christ  gave  the 
keys  of  the  church;^  these  are  committed  to  the  presbyters  and 
bishops,  who  dispense  forgiveness  to  us  in  the  preaching  and  the 
sacraments.^  This  ministry  has  power  as  it  is  vested  in  the 
church  in  spiritual  matters,  and  consists  in  doctrine,  in  jurisdic- 
tion, and  making  laws.  The  place  of  doctrine  has  two  parts — 
*'  the  handing  down  of  authoritative  dogma  ^  and  the  expounding 
of  these  dogmas. 

The  hard  mechanical  way  in  which  men  may  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  ethical  truth  is,  however,  not  confined  to  the  lay- 
man. "Whatever  authority  or  dignity  the  Holy  Spirit  confers 
in  the  Scriptures  upon  priests,  prophets,  apostles,  or  their  suc- 
cessors, is  given  to  them  not  as  men,  but  to  them  as  (members  of) 
the  ministry  to  which  they  are  appointed,  or,  to  put  it  more 
clearly,  to  the  word,  to  whose  ministry  they  are  appointed.  .  .  . 
For  whenever  they  are  called  to  office  they  are  enjoined  not  to 
bring  anything  of  their  own,  but  to  speak  by  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord."  '  There  can  therefore  be  no  "progressive  revelation," 
nor  any  autonomous  ethics  nor  any  interpretation  of  personal 
experience.  The  "word"  is  a  law.  "Surely  God  here  pro- 
claims a  law  to  all,  and  it  is  a  law  which  does  not  permit  any  one 
to  teach  more  than  he  has  been  ordered.* 

'IV,  i:io.  «IV.  i:i2.  » IV,  1:13.  « IV,  i  :  22. 

»  IV,  I  :  22. 

•  " Authoritatem  dogmatum  tradendorum  ct  corum  applicationem,"  "Ins.," 
IV,  8  :  8. 

'"Ins.,"  IV,  8  :2. 
•"Ins.,"  IV,  8:3. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   JOHN   CALVIN  523 

Even  the  relative  freedom  of  Old  Testament  times  is  gone. 
The  old  prophets  had  new  and  important  ethical  revelations 
made  to  them,  but  now  no  new  light  can  be  expected,  for,  "con- 
tented with  the  perfection  of  Christ's  doctrine,  we  may  learn  to 
frame  no  new  doctrine  for  ourselves  or  admit  any  one  devised 
by  others."  *  Hence  the  Gospel  is  but  a  new  and  more  final 
and  more  exacting  law.  The  Messias  has  so  spoken  "as  to 
leave  nothing  to  be  spoken  by  any  others  coming  after  him."  ^ 

The  law  governs  not  only  the  church  but  also  the  State. 
Calvin  reintroduces  the  lofty  dream  of  Gregory  the  Great  of  a 
theocracy,  with  the  two  swords,  and  the  magistrates  as  having 
"a  commission  from  God  and  invested  with  a  divine  authority, 
and  in  fact  representing  the  person  of  God,  as  whose  vice- 
regents  they,  as  it  were,  act."  ^  The  form  of  government  is 
relatively  immaterial  if  all  are  equally  obedient  to  the  divine 
word  as  taught  by  the  church.  But,  as  one  might  suspect, 
Calvin  leans  to  centralization  and  power.  In  the  French  of 
the  "Institutes'/'  he  says:  "One  may  reckon  with  three  types  of 
civil  government:  There  is  monarchy,  which  is  the  domination 
of  one  alone,  whether  he  bear  the  name  of  king  or  duke  or  other 
title;  aristocracy,  which  is  the  domination  by  princes  and 
families  of  note  who  govern;  and  there  is  democracy,  which  is 
the  domination  of  the  people,  in  which  each  of  the  people  has 
power.* 

These  all  have  dangers,  and  Calvin  inclines  to  aristocracy. 
"I,  for  my  part,  do  not  deny  that  the  form  surpassing  all  others 
is  aristocracy,  either  pure  or  tempered  by  popular  government."  ^ 

'"Ins.,"  IV,  8:7.  «  "Ins.,"  IV,  8:7. 

^"Ac  omnino  Dei  personam  sustinere  cujus  vices  quodammodo  agunt," 
"Ins.,"  IV,  20  :  4. 

*  "On  conte  trois  especes  do  regime  civil;  c'est  assavoir  Monarchic,  qui  est 
la  domination  d'un  seul,  soit  qu'on  le  nomme  Roy  ou  Due,  ou  autrement;  Aristo- 
cratic, qui  est  une  domination  gouvern^e  par  les  principaux  et  gens  d-apparence; 
et  Democratic,  qui  est  une  domination  populaire,  en  laquelle  chacun  du  peuple  a 
puissance,"  "Ins,"  IV,  20  :  8. 

*  "  Nam  si  illi  visum  est,  reges  regnis  prjcficerc,  liberis  civitatibus  senatores  aut 
decuriones,  quoscumque  locis  prajfecerit  in  quibus  degimus  nostrum  est  iis  nos 
morigeros  ac  obedientes  praestare  "  (IV,  20  :  8). 


524  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHIC^S 

But  the  Lord  has  assigned  the  forms  of  government,  and  the 
wish  to  change  the  form  is  not  only  superfluous  but  pernicious. 
In  whatever  form  he  has  appointed,  our  duty  is  to  submit  and 
obey.  The  church  may  not  put  to  death,  but  the  magistrate  acts 
as  God  and  puts  to  death.  "It  is  not  the  part  of  the  pious  to 
afflict  or  hurt,  but  to  avenge  the  injuries  done  to  the  pious  is  not 
to  afflict  or  hurt.  All  is  done  in  obedience  to  God."  ^  We  ought 
indeed  to  obey  God  rather  than  men,  but  in  obeying  our  rulers 
we  are  obeying  God  and  not  man.^ 

Holiness  plays  a  large  part  in  Calvin's  thought,  just  as  it 
does  in  that  of  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Ignatius  Loyola,  whose 
ethical  systems  are  most  nearly  akin  to  that  of  Calvin.  Holi- 
ness becomes  a  bond  between  us  and  God,  "because  it  is 
greatly  pertinent  to  his  glory"  that  he  should  not  be  associated 
with  iniquity  and  foulness.^  To  arouse  us  to  this  new  purity 
the  Scriptures  exhibit  God  the  Father,  who  has  reconciled  us  to 
himself  in  Christ,  that  in  him  we  may  have  the  image  to  which 
he  would  have  us  conformed.  "Since  Christ  has  purified  us 
with  his  blood,  and  communicated  this  purification  through 
baptism,  it  is  not  fitting  that  we  should  soil  ourselves  with  new 
wrong-doing."  We  are  engrafted  into  his  body  and  should  not 
stain  it;  we  are  temples  of  God  and  should  not  defile  them; 
we  are  destined  to  immortality  and  should  not  live  the  corruptible 
life.*  Doctrine  is  not  of  the  tongue  but  of  the  life,'  It  must 
possess  the  whole  soul  and  the  innermost  heart.  To  doctrine,  in 
which  our  religion  is  contained,  the  first  place  must  be  given; 
but  it  must  pass  into  conduct,  and  so  transform  us." 

Calvin  does  not  insist  upon  perfection  in  this  life,  but  on 
the  life  being  directed  toward  perfection,  and  upon  progress 
being  daily  made.'  The  law  of  God  contains  the  most  perfect 
method  of  life,  but  the  celestial  Magistrate  has  been  pleased  to 
adopt  a  more  accurate  way  of  training  us  to  this  rule,  which  is 
by  making  us  present  our  bodies  a  living  sacrifice;    hence  we 

'  IV,  20  :  lo.  MV,  20:32.  »  "Ins.,"  Ill,  6  :  2.  MIL  6  :  3. 

*  "  Non  enim  lingucc  est  doctrina,  scd  vitx,"  III,  6  :  4. 

•  "  Atquc  in  mores  transcal  oportct,"  "Ins.,"  Ill,  6:4.  '  III,  6  :  5. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   JOHN   CALVIN  525 

should  not  think,  speak,  design,  or  act  without  a  view  to  his 
glory.  Philosophy  gave  the  first  place  to  reason,  but  Christian 
philosophy  bids  her  (reason)  give  place  and  yield  complete  sub- 
mission to  the  Holy  Spirit.^  We  seek  only  God's  will  and  act  for 
his  glory.  Hence  Scripture  enjoins  us  to  lay  aside  all  excessive 
longing  for  wealth  or  power  or  human  favor.  We  are  to 
follow  good  for  its  own  sake  and  not  for  the  love  of  praise. 
Even  the  philosophers  who  most  taught  this  were  swallowed 
up  by  arrogance.^    We  deny  ourselves  and  renounce  reason. 

Thus  the  two  obstacles  to  virtue  are  taken  away  in  us — 
ungodliness  {impietas)  and  worldly  lust  (mundancB  cupidilates) — 
and  our  lives  are  reduced  to  sobriety,  denoting  chastity  and 
temperance  as  the  pure  and  frugal  use  of  temporal  goods 
and  the  patient  endurance  of  want;  righteousness  (juslitia), 
comprehending  all  the  duties  of  equity  in  rendering  to  every 
one  his  due;  and  godliness  (pietas),  which  connects  us  with 
God  in  true  holiness.  To  aspire  to  these  things  Paul  sets 
before  us  immortality,  "because  as  once  Christ  appeared  as 
our  Redeemer,  so  on  his  final  advent  he  will  give  full  effect  to 
the  salvation  he  has  obtained  for  us."  ^ 

Our  abnegation  has  a  twofold  aspect — first  to  fellow-men, 
and  secondly  and  chiefly  toward  God.  Only  divine  grace  can 
pluck  out  the  pest  of  contentiousness  and  self-love.^  We  are 
only  the  stewards  of  any  endowments  God  has  given  us,  and 
we  are  to  see,  even  in  the  most  unworthy,  the  image  of  God, 
and  show  it  honor  and  love,  especially  to  those  in  whom  that 
image  has  been  restored  in  Christ.  Is  any  one  mean  or  un- 
worthy, or  has  any  one  done  us  injury,  we  are  to  love  in  him 
the  image  of  God.^  No  arrogance  should  mark  our  service, 
for  we  are  only  paying  a  debt  due  from  us."*  Toward  God  we 
must  assume  an  attitude  of  absolute  dependence  upon  his  bles- 
sing, and  endure  all  things  as  from  him  with  tranquillity  and 
thankfulness.' 

*ni,  7  :i-  'III,  7  :2.  »III,  7  :3. 

*  "  TTJi  (piKoveiKtas  Kal  (piKavrlas,"  III,  7  :  4. 

"HI,  7  :6.  "Ill,  7  :7.  Mil,  7  :  10. 


526  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  pious  mind  must  aspire.     We  must  take  up  the  cross. 
"Those  whom  God  has  chosen  and  has  honored  by  his  fellow- 
ship (consortia)''  must  prepare  for  a  hard,  laborious,  troubled 
life,  ...  it  being  the  will  of  the  Father  to  exercise  them  by 
making  them  endure  the  test.     It  was  thus  he  began  with  his 
first-born,  Christ,  and  thus  he  continues  with  all  his  children. 
It  should,  therefore,  sweeten  the  cross  to  think  that  we  share  it 
with  Christ,  and  that  our  sufferings  are  not  only  blessed  to  us, 
but  bring  many  aids  to  the  much  furtherance  of  our  salvation.* 
The  only  reason  Jesus  had  to  bear  the  cross  was  to  demon- 
strate his  obedience  to  his  Father.     There  are  many  reasons  why 
we  should  bear   it  constantly.     It  teaches  us   humility    and 
patience  and  obedience.     So  the  cross  reveals  the  ^'irtues  God 
himself  bestows.^    Thus  also  it  separates  between  sons  and 
bastards.     The  sons  are  not  condemned  with  the  world,  the 
bastards  are  hardened  by  the  punishment.^    And  to  suffer  for 
righteousness'  sake  is  to  increase  our  real  joy;  if  driven  from  our 
homes,  we  have  a  higher  place  in  the  kingdom  of  God."    The 
endurance  is  not,  however,  insensibility  to  pain  or  mere  Stoic 
endurance,  but  the  believer  acquiesces  in  the  spiritual  conso- 
lation of   God.'     So   the  difference  between  philosophy   and 
Christianity  is  the  attitude  toward  the  will  of  God.     Philosophy 
says:    "Yield  because  you  must."    The  believer  says:    "We 
yield  because  God's  will  is  right."  * 

The  end,  therefore,  is  to  reach  a  contempt  for  the  present  life, 
and  to  exercise  ourselves  in  contemplation  of  the  future,  for 
there  is  no  medium  between  the  two:  the  world  must  either 
seem  vile  to  us,  or  it  will  detain  us  as  slaves  by  intemperate  love 

*  "  Sed  ad  promovendam  quoque  nostram  salutem  multuni  afferunt  adjuva- 
menti,"  III,  8  :  i. 

Mil,  8:2-5.  Mil,  8:8.  Mil,  8:7. 

*  "  In  spiritual!  Dei  consolatione  acquicscit,"  III,  8  :  8. 

lam  vero  quia  illud  dcmum  amabile  nobis  est,  quod  saluti  ac  bono  esse 
nobis  agnoscimus,  hac  etiam  parte  consolatur  nos  optimus  pater,  dum  asserit, 
se  eo  ipso  quod  nos  crucc  affligit,  saluti  nostrae  consulere"  (III,  8:11).  "Which 
leads  us  to  the  thought,  if  afflictions  are  salutary,  why  should  we  not  bear  them 
in  patience,  for  thus  we  are  resting  satisfied  with  our  own  good?" 


THE   ETHICS   OF   JOHN   CALVIN  527 

of  it.  It  is,  therefore,  of  the  highest  importance  that  we  be 
convinced  by  experience  of  the  miserable  character  of  this  life.' 
At  the  same  time  we  must  not  be  led  into  ingratitude  to  God. 
The  world,  ever  abounding  in  all  kinds  of  wretchedness,  is  yet 
jusdy  classed  among  the  divine  blessings  which  are  not  to  be 
despised,  and  it  contains  foretastes  of  the  heavenly  felicity.^ 
Yet  we  are  to  ardently  long  for  death  and  constantly  meditate 
upon  it.^  We  are  to  use  the  world  without  abusing  it,  and  fixed 
laws  are  out  of  place  in  so  doing.  The  Scriptures  lay  down 
general  rules,  and  we  should  keep  within  these  limits.*  The 
natural  quality  of  things  indicates  to  us  their  use,  but  they  must 
never  hinder  our  progress  to  eternal  life.^  Therefore,  while  the 
liberty  of  the  Christian  is  not  to  be  bound  to  external  things,  he 
is  bound  by  the  law — he  must  indulge  as  little  as  possible.*  He 
must  be  patient  and  content,  and  treat  all  things  as  a  trust  con- 
fided to  him.  And  every  man's  mode  of  life  is  a  station  assigned 
to  him,  and  all  is  to  be  subject  to  the  will  of  God. 

Such  in  brief  are  the  foundations  upon  which  Calvin  raises 
his  ethics.  Many  phrases,  like  "liberty  of  conscience,"  "re- 
sponsibility of  the  soul  to  God,"  are  used,  as  countless  passages 
demonstrate,  exactly  as  any  Roman  Catholic  schoolman  would 
use  them.  The  essential  difference  between  Calvin  and  Trent 
consists  not  in  the  definition  of  the  church,  but  in  the  historic 
answer  to  the  question.  Is  the  Roman  church  the  true  church  ? 
For  Calvin  the  church  was  a  sacramental  organization  with  an 
authoritative  ministry  of  the  word,  watching  over  the  State  in 
spiritual  things,  while  the  State  did  its  behests  in  material  things. 
The  State  only  had  authority  in  the  word  of  God,  and  the  church 
had  the  word  of  God  as  its  priceless  possession. 

The  glory  of  Protestant  ethics  as  founded  by  Luther  and 
developed  by  Kant  is  the  autonomous,  democratic,  unpriesdy 
character  stamped  upon  it.  All  men  should  be  kings  and  priests 
to  God.  The  ministry  according  to  Luther  was  purely  func- 
tional.    He  did  not  carry  out  the  logic  of  his  assumption  at  all 


'  III,  9  :  2. 

»III,9:3. 

>III,  9:4. 

*  III,  10  :  I. 

» III,  10  :  2-3. 

•Ill,  10:4, 

528  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

times,  yet  in  the  main  he  was  true  to  them.  In  the  last  analysis 
for  Luther  the  soul  must  stand  alone  for  truth  and  trust  that  it 
will  not  be  forsaken.  In  the  last  analysis  for  Calvin  the  soul 
finds  out  w^hich  church  has  the  sacrament  and  the  word  and 
submits  wholly  to  it.  The  difference  is  world-wide.  For  true 
ethical  development  there  is  no  more  room  in  logical  Calvinism 
than  in  logical  Romanism,  Ethics  has  been  swallowed  up  in 
dogmatics  and  systematic  theology.  This  is  no  accident. 
That  is  exactly  where  Calvin  put  ethics — inside  dogmatics. 

Reformed  systems  of  ethics  have,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  sprung 
up  almost  in  defiance  of  theology.  The  vital  principle  of  a 
real  Protestant  ethics  is  the  logical  and  thorough-going  accept- 
ance of  the  relative  character  of  all  casuistical  judgment.  As 
the  moral  character  of  any  judgment  depends  upon  the  motive, 
and  only  God  can  know  the  motive,  we  can  only  apply  the 
objective  test,  and  ask  in  utilitarian  terms  for  the  ultimate 
effect  of  any  action;  but  for  the  agent  the  moral  attitude  and 
not  the  outcome  is  the  determining  element.  For  Roman 
Catholic  scholasticism  and  for  Calvin  there  is  an  absolute  norm 
by  which  all  actions  can  be  truly  and  thoroughly  tested,  and 
Church  and  State  must  apply  the  tests.  Even  opinions  and 
doctrines  held  by  the  individual  are  thus  subject  to  an  infallible 
review.  It  was  therefore  no  hasty  or  ill-considered  action  for 
Calvin  to  hand  Servetus  over  to  the  State  for  proper  punishment. 
Calvin  would  have  been  false  to  his  fundamental  convictions  had 
he  acted  otherwise.  Rome  was  only  wrong  in  shedding  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  because  Rome  was  not  a  true  church. 
Given  a  true  church  and  her  duty  was  to  insist  that  the  State 
protect  pure  doctrine.  Calvin's  ethics  is  thus  based  on  an  out- 
ward authority. 

Over  Calvin's  ethics  are  flung  the  shadows  of  the  twofold 
view  of  life  that  did  so  much  damage  to  Christian  thinking. 
For  Jesus  all  life  was  under  God's  hand — the  sparrow  did  not 
fall  without  his  consent,  and  the  hairs  of  our  head  are  all  num- 
bered. For  Luther  at  his  best  there  is  always  the  glorious 
assurance  that  life  is  good.     That  all  life,  all  days,  all  places 


THE   ETHICS   OF   JOHN   CALVIN  529 

are  sacred,  if  only  we  use  them  in  the  joyful  service  of  God. 
So  that  the  housemaid  sweeping  out  a  room  was  engaged,  says 
Luther,  in  as  sacred  a  task  as  the  priest  at  the  altar.  For 
Calvin  the  world  was  primarily  evil — human  nature  was  in  itself 
corrupt.  The  world  must  seem  vile  to  us  and  we  are  to  ardently 
long  for  death.^  All  the  mediaeval  morbidness  that  has  so  often 
corrupted  Scotch  piety  has  its  legitimate  roots  in  the  essentially 
Roman  Catholic  scholasticism  of  Calvin.  His  conception  is  in 
essence  dualistic,  and  the  world  is  per  se  evil.  Of  course, 
Protestantism  has  largely  overcome  this  taint  of  Manichaeism, 
which  historically  Calvin  got,  in  the  writer's  judgment,  not  from 
Paul,  but  from  Augustine.  At  the  same  time  the  phrases  in 
which  the  oriental  intrusion  historically  asserted  itself  have  never 
been  banished  from  the  Reformed  creeds. 

The  most  serious  blunder  of  all  was  Calvin's  acceptance  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  theory  of  the  two  swords.  To  mistake 
Calvin's  theory  of  the  State  for  democracy,  and  that  in  spite  of 
his  own  statement,  is  so  wildly  far  from  the  truth  that  we  may 
assert  on  the  contrary  that  all  the  services  Calvinism  has  ren- 
dered democracy  have  been  by  indirection.  Presbyterianism 
has,  on  the  whole,  been  most  true  to  Calvin's  conception  and 
has  never  been  truly  democratic.  It  is  essentially  aristocratic 
in  organization  and  feeling.  To  a  selected  ministry  (minister, 
elders,  and  deacons)  are  handed  over  all  the  spiritual  interests 
of  the  church.  To  this  ministry  the  congregations  owe  not  co- 
operation, but  obedience.  That  the  tide  of  Protestant  feeling 
in  the  Presbyterian  church  has  happily  been  too  strong  for 
Calvinism  and  its  logic  should  not  blind  us  to  the  real  state  of 
the  facts. 

Calvin's  ethics  partake  also  of  the  legal  character  common 
to  all  the  scholastic  systems.  He  founds  his  ethics  on  an  exposi- 
tion of  the  law  of  the  Old  Testament.  Luther  plainly  saw  that 
ethics  was  an  inner  compulsion,  and  that  the  Christian  man  was 
free  from  all  merely  external  law  just  so  far  as  he  was  Christian. 
So  in  his  dealing  with  the  Ten  Commandments  in  his  catechisms 

'  IV,  9  : 4- 


530  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

there  is  a  world-wide  difference  between  his  method  and  that  of 
Calvin.  For  Luther  the  law  of  Christian  freedom  delights  to 
expand  in  the  atmosphere  of  loving  submission.  For  Calvin 
the  Christian  life  is  bounded  by  an  almost  pharisaic  attempt  to 
determine  the  exact  letter  of  written  law.  His  comments  on 
Romans  are  often  painful  reading  for  any  really  clear-thinking 
Protestant.  Submission  to  legal  requirement  would  be  Calvin's 
interpretation  of  the  Protestant  Magna  Charta  in  Gal.  4:2,1- 
5:12.  For  this  submission  is  in  true  Roman  Catholic  spirit 
made  an  act  of  faith.  For  the  Christian  man  rejoices  in  the 
legal  enactment,  but,  crushed  and  humbled  by  his  inability 
to  meet  the  requirement,  flees  in  his  weakness  to  the  mother 
church  and  the  sacraments,  as  sealing  ordinances  for  his  assur- 
ance of  forgiveness.  In  Calvin  the  sacraments  are  essential  to 
the  Christian  ethical  life.  Baptism  is  the  mortification  of  our 
corrupt  nature,  and  without  it  there  is  ordinarily  no  ethical  life 
possible.  He  simply  puts  it  in  the  place  of  circumcision.  One 
has  only  to  read  the  Institutio,  IV,  16,  to  see  that  to-day  we  as 
Protestants  really  hold  with  the  Anabaptists  at  nearly  all  points 
as  against  Calvin,  except  in  circles  on  the  side  of  Roman  Catholic 
scholasticism  (high-church  Presbyterianism,  Lutheranism,  and 
Anglicanism).  In  spite  of  Luther's  most  unfortunate  realism 
in  his  interpretation  of  Hoc  est  meum  corpus,  he  remains  sub- 
stantially unaffected  in  his  ethics  (though  not  wholly)  by  the 
element  of  sacramental  magic.  For  Calvin  the  imparted  grace 
of  the  sacrament  is  an  ethical  element  of  first  importance.  The 
superstitious  regard  of  the  older  Scottish  thought  for  the  Lord's 
table  is  the  direct  outcome  of  what  is  an  essential  element  in 
Calvin's  teaching.  For  Calvin  there  was  sacramental  magic, 
and  although  it  was  by  no  muttered  incantation  that  the  elements 
became  the  bearers  of  special  grace,  yet  by  the  clear  spoken  word 
they  do.^ 

The  Protestantism  of  to-day  can  hardly  understand  how 
large  a  part  this  sacramental  element  played  in  the  Calvinistic 
system.     Under  the  influence  of  a  Protestant  thought  that  has 

•IV,  14:4. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   JOHN   CALVIN  531 

developed  independently  of  the  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
intrusions,  the  average  Protestant  has  an  aesthetic  and  ritual 
interest  in  the  sacraments,  but  almost  no  ethical  or  metaphysical 
interest  whatsoever.  Very  different  was  the  case  with  Calvin. 
As  every  one  may  see  in  his  fierce  attacks  upon  Anabaptists, 
he  clearly  saw  that  his  system  was  profoundly  interested  in  the 
metaphysics  and  ethics  involved. 

The  whole  conception  of  the  Christian  life,  as  Calvin  draws 
it,  is  Roman  Catholic  rather  than  Protestant.  The  essential 
feature  of  Luther's  message  was  that  in  Christ  we  were  free 
to  live  more  and  more  unto  righteousness,  and  that  that  freedom 
was  joy  and  peace  and  a  sense  of  security  and  sonship,  and  that 
all  might  have  it  who  claimed  it.  Thus,  again,  Luther's  unfort- 
unate incursion  into  the  realm  of  metaphysical  speculation  on 
the  freedom  of  the  will  had  a  genuine  ethical  interest,  and  can 
be  resolved  into  a  relatively  harmless  though  unfortunate 
psychological  determinism.  This  is  not  the  case  with  Calvin's 
doctrine  of  decree.  It  is  part  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  a  system 
of  thought  whose  dominant  note  is  God  as  law-giver  and  not 
as  redeeming  Father.  Hence  no  more  for  Calvin  than  for 
the  Roman  Catholic  can  there  be  logically,  in  spite  of  the 
doctrine  of  perseverance,  any  assurance  of  faith.  The  secret 
decree  of  God  by  which  corruption  is  changed  to  incorruption 
can  only  be  known  in  the  final  glory.  Fear  and  trembling  is  the 
note  of  the  Christian  life  and  not  joy  and  peace.  Over  Luther's 
faith  flits  the  clouds  of  medieval  morbidness,  as  the  scurrying 
clouds  that  follow  on  a  storm  well  past.  With  Calvin  we  descend 
again  into  the  twilight  darkness  of  valleys  the  glad  sunshine 
scarcely  touches.  The  relatively  gloomy,  despondent  type  of 
piety  which  is  connected  with  Calvin's  memory  is  part  of  his 
fundamental  thinking.  It  is  the  outcome  of  his  essential  con- 
ception of  the  Christian  life. 

Hence  on  ethical  grounds  we  may  say  that  Calvin  was  one 
of  the  last,  though  not  one  of  the  greatest,  of  the  schoolmen. 
The  ethical  services  of  Calvinism  have  been  indirect  and  in 
spite  of  his  scholasticism.     In  breaking  with  the  Roman  sacra- 


532  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

mental  system,  Calvin  happily  failed  in  his  attempt  to  establish 
an  effective  rival  Protestant  sacramental  system;  and  in  Calvin's 
tremendous  and  crushing  attacks  on  the  Roman  hierarchy  he 
made  the  establishment  of  a  Protestant  rival  hierarchy  impossi- 
ble. We  are  still  cursed  by  the  attempts — made  in  the  great 
name  of  Calvin — to  establish  again  a  Protestant  priestly  sacra- 
mentalist  organization,  with  the  power  of  the  keys,  interpreting 
again  an  infallible  legal  code. 

The  great  service  Calvin  rendered  the  Reformation  was  the 
organizing  of  a  movement  strong  enough  to  stand  up  against  the 
Roman  hierarchy,  and  yet  utterly  separated  from  it  by  the 
rejection  of  celibacy,  five  of  the  seven  sacraments,  the  authority 
of  the  Pope,  the  whole  monastic  system,  penance,  purgatory, 
auricular  confession,  the  mass,  the  sacred  Latin  tongue,  bishops 
in  the  technical  sense,  and  the  magic  of  the  real  presence.  He 
gave  men  a  central  conception  of  great  power,  as  one  sees  in  the 
history  of  Mahomet,  where  the  same  conceptions  organized  the 
religious  thought  and  overthrew  corrupted  Christianity.  The 
Puritan  state  became  the  fighting  force  of  the  Reformation. 
Perhaps  the  very  fact  that  legal  discipline  and  hard,  unyielding 
authority  took  the  place  of  leadership  gave  it  its  power  and  its 
success,  but  also  led  to  its  ultimate  failure  and  defeat. 

The  crystalline  clearness  with  which  the  trained  political 
lawyer  set  forth  his  views  leaves  no  excuse  for  the  wide-spread 
misunderstanding  of  Calvin.  The  tremendous  force  of  his 
argument  must  be  felt  by  any  one  who  goes  carefully  through  his 
"  Institutes,"  with  his  letters  as  a  commentary.  He  organized 
the  Reformation,  gave  it  a  fighting  theology  and  a  political  creed. 
The  Puritan  state  arose.  It  was  another  aristocratic,  highly 
organized  theocracy,  and  its  great  services  should  never  be  for- 
gotten, when  as  more  thorough-going  Protestants  we  recognize 
its  weaknesses  and  see  that  it  took  over  the  great  conceptions  of 
Calvin  and  treated  them  as  final  and  ultimate,  whereas  they  are 
in  fact  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  Protestantism. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  CREEDS  533 

VI.   THE  ETHICS  OF  THE  CREEDS  OF  THE  CONTINENTAL 
REFORMATION 

There  is  but  little  in  any  of  the  creeds  that  can  be  said  to 
advance  systematic  ethics.  Increasingly  as  time  went  on  the 
creeds  occupied  themselves  with  dogmatic  discussion  and 
scholastic  refinements.  Even  the  discussion  of  justification  by 
faith,  whose  immediate  interest  was  ethical,  lost  itself,  for 
instance,  in  the  Formula  of  Concord,  in  unreal  and  scholastic 
abstractions.  To  an  increasing  degree  the  doctrines  of  sin, 
total  depravity,  free-will  ceased  to  be  matters  of  genuine  per- 
sonal experience,  or  rather  the  hypothetical  explanation  of  such 
experience,  and  they  became  items  in  a  system  given  on  external 
authority.  The  Augsburg  Confession  falls  back  upon  "  God's 
will "  as  the  reason  of  good  works.  The  sacraments  are  exalted, 
and  although  the  definition  of  the  sacramental  elements  varied 
in  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  churches,  the  high-church  doc- 
trine prevailed  in  all  of  them.  The  Augsburg  Confession 
regards  baptism  as  necessary  to  salvation,^  and  the  Helvetic 
Confession  and  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  both  take  high  ground 
about  salvation  being  only  possible  in  the  church,  and  baptism 
is  a  requisite  for  church  membership.^  The  reformed  churches, 
indeed,  rejected  the  thought  of  any  change  in  the  bread  and  wine, 
but  though  symbols,  they  are  grace-imparting  symbols.  Thus 
a  real  sacramental'  magic  found  its  way  back  into  Protestantism. 
The  ethical  import  of  this  is  by  no  means  small.  It  was  one  of 
the  important  factors  in  the  hardening  and  legalizing  process 
that  began  so  soon. 

The  thought  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  previously  to 
the  general  resurrection  is  categorically  denied  by  the  Augsburg 
Confession,^  and  the  dangerous  but  convenient  distinction 
between  " civil "  and  "spiritual "  righteousness  is  asserted.     The 

»  "De  Baptismo  decent,  quod  sit  necessarius  ad  salutem,  quod  que  per  Bap- 
tismum  o£feratur  gratia  Dei,"  art.  IX. 

2  "Second  Helvetic  Conf.,"  cap.  XX;  3-5.  C/.,  also,  "Damnamus  Anabaptis- 
tas,  qui  negant  baptizandos  esse  infantulos  recens  natos  a  fidelibus,"  etc.,  etc. 

'  "We  condemn  others  also,  who  now  scatter  Jewish  opinions,  that  before  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  the  godly  shall  occupy  the  kingdom  of  the  world," 
art.  XVII. 


534  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

writers  of  the  confession  claimed  that  they  taught  nothing 
hostile  to  "Scripture  or  the  church,  or  the  Roman  church,  so  far 
as  it  was  informed  from  the  Scriptures."  ' 

At  one  point  the  Lutheran  symbols  are  all  plain  and  definite. 
The  service  of  God  is  along  the  line  of  the  ordinary  avocation. 
Whatever  a  man  does,  in  that  he  is  to  serve  God,  and  true 
perfection  is  in  attending  to  our  calling  and  not  in  "beggary  and 
vile  apparel."  ^  And  even  the  Lord's  day  is  a  matter  of  Chris- 
tian liberty,  "that  men  might  know  that  the  observation  neither 
of  the  Sabbath,  nor  of  any  other  day,  was  of  necessity."  ^ 

The  Formula  of  Concord  is  so  swallowed  up  in  dogmatics  and 
speculative  theology  that  the  ethics  is  formal,  conventional,  and 
a  simple  iteration  of  positions  common  to  all  the  churches. 

Neither  in  the  Lutheran  nor  the  Reformed  symbols  is  there 
any  real  development  of  a  Protestant  autonomous  ethics,  on 
the  basis  of  the  indwelling  living  spirit;  and  in  the  Reformed 
symbols  the  Ten  Commandments  are  frankly  accepted  as  the 
written  norm  of  Christian  conduct.  The  ethical  vigor  of  Luther, 
Calvin,  and  the  Council  of  Trent  is  sadly  missing  from  the 
Reformed  creeds.  However  much  the  student  of  dogmatics 
may  delight  in  them,  the  student  of  ethics  from  his  point  of  view 
will  find  them  only  a  source  of  discouragement  and  perplexity.^ 
The  ethics  are  in  the  background,  and  the  Roman  Catholic  mis- 
conceptions of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State  reflect 
themselves  increasingly  in  the  creeds.  The  Helvetic  Confession 
in  its  XXVth  article  demands  that  the  State  shall  punish  and 
suppress  heresy.  The  Gospel  is  a  new  "law,"  the  ministry  a 
new  priesthood,  and  the  church  an  ark  of  safety  for  the  believer. 
There  is  therefore  here  little  vantage-ground  for  advance  to  real 
Christian  ethical  freedom.^ 

'  Nothing  "quod  discrepet  a  scriptis  vel  ab  ecclesia  Catholica,  vel  ab  ccclesia 
Romana  quatenus  ex  Scriptoribus  nota  est,"  art.  XXII. 
'  "Aug.  Conf.,"  pars  secunda  (Apologie),  Art.  VI. 

*  "Aug.  Conf.,"  pars  secunda  (Apologie),  art,  VII. 

*  For  a  different  estimate,  see  Luthardt,  "Gcschichte  dcr  christ.  Ethik,"  1893, 
PP-  53-58  and  81-84. 

*  For  literature,  see  Schafl's  "Creeds  of  Christendom,"  vol.  Ill;  Uhlhorn, 
Johann  Gerhard  Wilhclm:  "Exponuntur  librorum  symbolicorum,  maximc 
eorum,  qui  in  ccclesia  Lutherana  obtinucrunt,  cthica  argumenta,"  etc.,  Gottin- 


THE  EPIGONES  AND  THEIR  ETHICS         535 


VII.   THE  EPIGONES  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  AND  SEVENTEENTH 

CENTURIES 

Both  in  England  and  in  Germany  the  Reformation  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  period  of  great  instability,  which  affected  the  entire 
European  world.  It  was  not  wholly  the  result  of  the  religious 
awakening  nor  yet  of  the  rise  of  nationality,  but  was  also  condi- 
tioned by  the  economic  changes  that  followed  hard  upon  the 
struggle  of  the  middle-class  for  recognition  in  the  political  life. 
The  absorption  of  the  energies  of  the  Protestant  churches  in 
self-defense  and  in  dogmatic  and  economic  reorganization  was 
such  that  the  men  who  now  began  to  lead  seem  pigmies  in 
comparison  to  men  like  Luther,  Bucer,  Bullinger,  Calvin, 
Bugenhagen,  Zwingli,  not  to  speak  of  such  pronounced  per- 
sonalities as  Carlstadt,  Schwenckfeld,  and  Thomas  Munzer. 

The  counter-reformation  had  the  advantage  that  reaction 
always  has.  It  defended  existing  vested  interests;  it  appealed 
from  the  unknown  and  the  untried  to  the  familiar  and  time- 
honored;  it  was  centralized  and  worked  as  a  resolute  unified 
body,  whereas  Protestantism  was  split,  irresolute,  and  only  half 
roused  to  self-consciousness.  The  counter-reformation  used 
force,  but  that  did  not  distinguish  it  from  the  reformers.  It 
had,  however,  some  great  advantages  in  using  force.  It  was 
consistently  imperialist;  Protestantism  was  not.  It  had  a  clear- 
cut  theory  of  the  Church  and  State;  Protestantism  did  not.  It 
voiced  the  new  religious  life  that  awoke  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
church,  and  gave  it  new  directness  and  power. 

As  over  against  the  counter-reformation,  Protestantism  did  not 
have  men  of  great  power  within  the  ecclesiastical  organization. 
The  intellectual  work  was  done  for  Protestantism  in  political 
science  and  philosophy  sometimes  by  men  actually  hostile  to 
the  ecclesiastical  organization. 

The  ethics  are  dominated  by  Melanchthon,  whose  Loci  are 

gen,  1848;  Troeltsch,  Ernst:  "Dcr  Alt-Protestantismus  (I-II)  (i6.  und  17. 
Jahrhundert),"  pp.  315-361  in  "Die  Kultur  der  Gcgenwart,"  teil  I,  abt.  4, 
part  I. 


536  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

the  subject  at  once  of  elaborate  commentary/  without  any  real 
advance,  and  sometimes,  as  in  the  treatment  of  the  Decalogue, 
with  a  distinct  decline  of  vigor  and  vitality. 

This  decline  is  even  more  marked  when  Venatorius  of  Nu- 
renburg  ^  attempts  an  independent  ethics,  and  starting  with 
Luther  winds  up  with  Cicero.  The  attempt  to  combine  Stoi- 
cism with  the  evangelical  teaching  of  Luther  reveals  the  entire 
misconception  both  of  paganism  and  Christianity  that  pre- 
vailed. 

In  fact  for  Venatorius  apparently  the  pagan  ideal  is  good 
enough,  only  it  needs  Christian  faith  to  live  up  to  it.  Thus 
"faith"  is  a  new  Christian  philosophy.  And  in  the  law  and 
Gospels  all  is  contained. 

Melanchthon  had  done  his  work  so  well  that  again  Aristo- 
telian intellectualism  and  individualism  occupy  the  centre  of 
the  stage,  and  the  ethics  of  the  New  Testament  are  swamped 
in  the  cardinal  virtues  and  Melanchthon's  distinctions  between 
virtues  and  duties.  The  whole  treatment  is  so  scholastic  and 
so  confused  that  the  reader  is  set  wondering  where  the  Gospel 
really  has  any  place. 

Much  more  truly  reformed  and  Christian  seems  to  be  the  work 
of  Weller,^  who  deals  at  length,  and  in  the  sense  of  Luther,  with 
the  service  of  God  in  the  round  of  daily  duty,  and  especially 

'  Strigel,  Victorinus:  "Locorum  theologicorum  .  .  .  V.S.  enchiridion  ad 
methodum  Locorum  ...  P.  Melanthonis  .  .  .  ,"  Wittenberg,  1591;  Chemni- 
tius,  Martinus:  "Locorum  theologicorum  .  .  .  Francofurti,  1604."  Cf.  Pelt, 
L. :  Die  christliche  Ethik  in  der  lutherischen  Kirche  vor  Cali.xt  und  die  Trcn- 
nung  von  der  Dogmatik  durch  denselben,"  in  "Theologische  Studien  und  Kriti- 
ken,"  XXI,  1848,  pp.  271-319. 

*  Venatorius,  Thomas:  "De  virtute  Christiana  libri  tres,  Norinbergae  [isJag." 
Cf.  Luthardt,  Chr.  Ernst:  "Geschichte  der  christlichcn  Ethik  scit  der  Refor- 
mation," Leipsic,  1893,  pp.  89-90,  who  gives  a  good  summary  but  a  very  poor 
critique  of  the  work;  also  Schawarz,  J.  C.  E.:  "Thomas  Venatorius  und  die 
ersten  Anfiingc  der  protestantischen  Ethik  im  Zusammen  hange  mit  der  Ent- 
wickelung  der  Rechtfertigungslehre,"  in  "Theologische  Studien  und  Kritikcn," 
XXIII,  1850,  pp.  79-142. 

'  Weller,  Hieronymus:  "  De  officio  ccclesiastico,  politico  et  ceconomico  libellus 
pius  et  eruditus,"  Noribergx,  1552.  The  Latin  the  present  writer  has  not  seen. 
Justus  Jonas  produced  a  paraphrase  of  it. 


THE  EPIGONES  AND  THEIR  ETHICS         537 

defends  the  taking  up  of  office  by  Christians  as  over  against  the 
Anabaptists,  who  often  attacked  the  holding  of  State  office  by 
the  "regenerate."  In  fact  the  popular  preached  ethics  was 
probably  superior  to  that  of  the  schools.  The  systematic 
treatise  by  Chytraeus  *  deserves  attention  from  his  attempt  to 
adjust  the  claims  of  law  and  Gospel  by  postulating  the  Decalogue 
as  the  norm  of  the  Christian  life,  because  in  it  the  final  will  of 
God  is  revealed;  but  God  wants  freedom  and  sonship  of  us,  and 
not  merely  legal  obedience,  so  Christ  appears  to  enable  us 
freely  to  accept  and  live  up  to  the  commandments.  Virtue  is 
doing  the  things  commanded  in  the  Decalogue,  but  they  must 
be  done  from  the  heart,  hence  the  need  of  regeneration,  that  the 
heart  may  move  us  to  loving  obedience.  Thus  the  ethical  life 
moves  within  a  given  closed  system,  and  we  have  the  old  scholas- 
tic method  in  the  fulness  of  its  fruitage.  Thus  ethics  are  also 
lost  in  a  theological  description  of  regeneration. 

The  outcome  of  Melanchthon  and  Chytraeus  may  be  seen  in 
the  ethical  scholasticism  of  Johann  Gerhard,^  who,  after  treating 
of  Scripture  in  the  first  volume  as  the  perfect  norm,  develops  a 
speculative  system  of  theology  akin  to  Thomas  Aquinas,  from 
whom  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  he  has  not  borrowed  much 
material.  In  the  fifth  volume  he  enters  upon  a  controversy 
with  Bellarmine  upon  the  subject  of  free-will,  and  all  the  con- 
fusions of  Melanchthon  are  repeated.  Ethical  material  is  also 
contained  in  the  sixth  volume,  where  he  deals  with  the  relation 
of  ceremonial  law  to  the  ethics  of  the  new  dispensation,^  with 
the  character  of  the  Gospel  as  given  to  us  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
with  penitence.  It  is  illustrative  of  his  method  to  turn  to  page 
142  of  this  volume,  where  he  asks  the  question,  whether  and  in 

'  Chytrffius,  David  (the  elder) :  "  Regulae  vitae.  Virtutum  descriptiones  me- 
thodicae  .  .  .  recens  recognitse  .  .  .  ac  exemplis  .  .  .  illustratae,"  etc.,  Leipsic, 
1558;  other  editions,  Wittenberg,  1570  and  1573. 

2  Gerhard,  Johann:  "Loci  theologici,  denus  edidit  variique  generis  observat 
.  .  .  ed.  Jo.  F.  Cotta.  20  torn,  et  index  generalis,"  Tubingen,  1 762-1 789; 
"TheSummeof  Christian  Doctrine  written  originally  in  Latine  .  .  .  and  trans- 
lated by  R.  Winterton,"  Cambridge,  1640. 

'  In  Tomo  sexto,  locus  XIV,  tracts  II  and  III. 


538  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

what  sense  Christ  may  be  called  a  new  law-giver/  The  Council 
of  Trent  had  anathematized  all  who  said  that  Christ  Jesus  was 
not  a  law-giver/  and  after  reading  all  the  arguments  in  refutation 
of  this  position  the  reader  is  left  wondering  where  exactly  Gerhard 
disagrees  with  Trent,  for  in  point  of  fact  the  Gospel  is  a  new 
law,  and  Christ  Jesus  came  to  enable  us  to  keep  it.^  With  vast 
scholastic  learning  we  are  led  into  all  the  legal  casuistry  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  even  while  maintaining  in  name  the  evangel- 
ical freedom,  the  substance  is  sacrificed  to  a  new  legalism.  Even 
the  machinery  for  the  maintenance  of  this  new  spiritual  tyranny 
is  elaborately  supplied.  We  have  all  the  apparatus  of  reproof, 
minor  excommunication  and  major  excommunication,*  and  with 
the  State  magistrate  to  enforce  the  spiritual  decisions.^  It  was 
not  the  fault  of  these  new  scholastics  that  a  national  spiritual 
imperialism  did  not  take  the  place  of  the  old  international 
imperialism,  with  the  Church  and  State  as  the  two  pillars.' 
Although  with  patent  inconsistency  Gerhard  denies  that  the 
State  should  put  heretics  to  death. 

Nor  is  the  work  of  Calixtus  '  one  whit  better.  Here  he  deals 
with  the  regenerate  as  the  subjects  of  a  new  ethics  in  exactly 
the  same  spirit.  Even  Luthardt  has  to  admit  the  confused  and 
scholastic  character  of  this  greatly  overestimated  work.  Of 
really  original  work  there  is  from  the  ethical  point  of  view  in 
neither  Calixtus,  Paul  v.  Eitzer,  or  Diirr  any  trace.  The  same 
old  material  borrowed  at  third  hand  from  Aristotle  is  worked 
over  in  bad  Latin,  and  then  the  vain  attempt  is  made  to  distin- 
guish between  this  product  as  philosophic  on  the  one  hand  and 
as  "theological"  on  the  other. 

'  As  throughout,  this  question  is  treated  as  controversial,  with  the  Roman 
Catholics  on  one  side  and  the  Anabaptists  on  the  other. 

'  "Se  quis  dixerit,  Christum  Jcsum  a  Deo  hominibus  datum  esse,  ut  redem- 
toreum,  cui  fidant,  non  etiamut  legislatoreum  cui  obediant,  anathema  fit,"  Coun- 
cil Trid.,  VI,  21.  »  Cf.  vol.  V,  locus,  XIII. 

*  "De  Ecclesia,"  tom.  XI,  cap.  VI,  §§  II  and  IV. 
»  Tom.  XIII,  locus  XXV. 

•  Sine  ecclesiastico  ministerio  commode  quidem  sed  non  pie,  sine  politica 
potestate  pie  quidem  sed  non  commode  vivi  potest,"  locus  XXV. 

'  Calixtus,  Gcorg:    "Epitome  thcologiiu  moralis,"  Hclmstadt,  1634. 


THE  EPIGONES  AND  THEIR  ETHICS         539 

The  influence  of  renewed  legal  study  and  political  theory 
shows  itself  in  the  second  part  of  Buddeus's  work/  who  deals 
with  the  difference  between  the  divine  and  natural  law.^  At  the 
same  time  the  discussion  is  hopelessly  scholastic.  Practical 
theology,  he  says,  is  the  science  which  teaches  regenerate  men, 
following  the  leading  of  divine  writings,  how  they  shall  live  so 
that  they  shall  grow  in  the  divine  image,  and  at  death  leaving  all 
imperfections  become  participants  in  the  eternal  and  highest 
felicity.^  The  closed  system  within  which  we  are  supposed  to 
move  is  the  Bible.  In  reality  it  is  only  the  traditional  mediaeval 
theology  slightly  tinged  by  the  new  colors  of  the  Reformation. 
Life  and  the  end  of  life  are  thought  of  in  the  peculiarly  narrow 
and  selfish  individualism  characteristic  of  the  post-Reformation 
men.  The  thinking  of  Malebranche  is  somewhat  reflected  in 
places,  and  the  psychological  discussions  of  the  period  are  taken 
into  account.  Regeneration  does  not  change  our  faculties,  but 
the  affections,  inclinations,  and  propensities  are  changed.* 

A  large  part  of  the  book  is  a  polemic  against  the  rationalism 
of  this  period,  but  it  is  really  exceedingly  unintelligent  and  has 
only  authority  to  set  up  over  against  it.  Learned  and  clear,  then, 
as  Buddeus  undoubtedly  is,  the  outcome  is  in  the  last  degree 
unsatisfactory  and  cannot  carry  us  out  of  the  dogmatism  and 
unreality  of  the  ecclesiastical  ethics  of  that  day. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  Dannceus,^  who  does  not  seem  to 
the  present  writer  to  be  so  nearly  the  father  of  reformed  ethics 
as  Schweitzer  seems  to  think.     Certainly  Melanchthon  is  the 

'  Buddeus,  Johann  Franz:  "Institutiones  Theologias  Moralis  variis  observa- 
tionibus  illustrat£e,"  Leipsic,  171 1  and  1727. 

*"Non  enim  ex  ratione,  quod  Puffendorf  fecit,  sed  ex  revelatione,  nostra 
probamus  quod  theologiae  proprium  est,  et  si  subinde,  illustrationis  caussa, 
rationis  Scita  in  subsidium  vocemus,"  preface,  p.  3. 

*  "Proleg.  de  nat.  et  indole,"  §  V,  p.  6. 

*  Cap.  I,  §  XXXVII,  p.  36. 

*Dannaeus  (Daneau),  Lambert,  1530-1595.  Cf.  Alexander  Schweizer:  "Die 
Entwickelung  des  Moralsystems  in  der  Reformirten  Kirche,"  in  "  Theologische 
Studien  und  Kritiken,"  XXIII,  1850,  pp.  5-78,  288-327,  554-580.  Luthardt, 
Chr.  Ernst:  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik  seit  der  Reformation,"  Leipsic, 
1893,  p.  99. 


540  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

organizing  spirit  in  the  "Ethica  Christiana,"  '  and  although  the 
legal  studies  of  Danna^us  give  the  ethics,  as  they  give  those  of 
Calvin,  a  certain  form,  the  underlying  assumptions  are  just  those 
of  the  Lutheran  ethics  which  we  have  been  considering.  His 
interest  in  the  theocracy  is  not  greater  than  that  of  Buddeus, 
nor  is  the  Bible  any  more  of  a  closed  system  for  him  than  for 
Gerhard  or  Calixtus.  The  Puritanism  that  so  markedly  dom- 
inated reformed  ethics  in  Calvin  and  those  who  followed  in  his 
footsteps  does  indeed  not  characterize  the  Lutheran  systems 
to  the  same  degree.  At  the  same  time  it  is  there,  nor  does  it 
seem  to  the  present  writer  historical  to  make  it  so  exclusively  an 
introduction  from  the  Netherlands  as  Ritschl  does.* 

VIII.      THE   NEW   PROTESTANT  CASUISTRY 

By  casuistry  one  may  mean  the  application  of  general  prin- 
ciples to  particular  cases.  But  such  a  definition  is  so  wide  that 
it  really  ceases  to  mean  what  casuistry  has  historically  meant. 
In  a  narrower  sense  it  is  the  attempt  in  cases  of  conscience, 
where  pleasure  conflicts  with  duty,  or  seeming  duty  with  seeming 
duty,  to  resolve  the  conflict  on  the  basis  of  authoritative  decisions. 
In  this  sense  Roman  Catholic  morality  had  a  final  code  in  the 
decisions  of  the  church.  Where  she  had  spoken  the  case  was 
closed.  It  was  inconceivable  for  faith  that  there  should  be  any 
conflict  between  her  decisions.  An  elaborate  casuistry  thus 
grew  up  out  of  the  simple  faith  that  through  appointed  ofl[icers 
the  Christian  could  come  into  direct  contact  with  a  final  and 
definite  authority,  and  that  all  cases  of  conscience  could  be 
resolved  in  the  confessional. 

Protestantism  by  several  stages  broke  with  priest  and  bishop, 
with  pope  and  even  general  council,  but  stopped  at  the  pages  of 
the  New  Testament.  Here  in  the  words  of  Scripture  are  laws 
which  are  the  final  rules  of  faith  and  practice.  This  law  is 
binding  on  each  conscience,  hence  it  becomes  eternally  impor- 

'  Published  in  1577  and  appearing  in  many  editions. 
*  In  his  "History  of  Pietism." 


THE  NEW  PROTESTANT   CASUISTRY         541 

tant  to  know  just  what  the  law  says.  Roman  Catholic  exegesis 
could  afford  to  be  general  and  inexact.  The  symbolic  meanings 
were  many,  and  the  letter  was  relatively  unimportant.  Could 
not  mother  church  at  any  time  give  a  final  and  definite  interpre- 
tation of  the  letter,  or  an  authoritative  answer  on  the  basis  of 
the  Scripture,  that  in  fact  superseded  Scripture?  Not  so  in 
Biblical  Protestantism.  Here  only  the  most  careful  exegesis 
could  elucidate  the  meaning  of  the  text,  and  the  text  alone  had 
authority.  At  the  same  time  it  was  the  business  of  the  church 
to  elucidate  the  text  through  her  pastors  and  theological  teachers. 
At  this  point  the  elucidation  may  again  be  the  relatively  sim- 
ple and  always  necessary  application  of  general  principles  to 
special  cases,  and  on  such  a  basis  one  can  have  no  casuistry, 
properly  speaking.  All  systematic  instruction  amounts  to  just 
that.  Quite  otherwise  is  it,  however,  when  it  becomes  necessary 
to  collect  important  decisions,  and  to  balance  them  one  against 
another  to  discover  the  authoritative  voice  in  these  decisions. 
The  beginnings,  but  only  the  beginnings,  of  a  casuistry  appear 
when  Luther  and  Melanchthon  and  the  evangelical  universities 
were  summoned  to  give,  not  advice,  but  authoritative  decisions 
binding  upon  the  conscience. 

All  the  credal  statements  were  apologetic  in  character.  They 
attempted  to  set  forth  and  explain  wherein  they  agreed  with  the 
past  and  wherein  they  differed  with  Rome.  Neither  in  ethics 
nor  in  social  theory  did  any  of  the  creeds  dream  of  a  break  with 
the  historic  past.  And  yet  they  expressed  under  old  formulae 
new  life,  new  hopes,  and  called  attention  to  new  situations. 
New  situations,  however,  demand  a  new  ethics.  The  ethical 
confusion  of  the  Reformation  period  has  already  had  our  atten- 
tion. It  is  hard  at  the  best  of  times  for  even  a  well-inten- 
tioned, ethically  trained  man  to  know  what  in  complicated 
circumstances  he  ought  to  do.  But  the  generations  of  the 
Reformation  had  been  treated  as  children.  The  confessional, 
so  far  as  it  has  significance,  discourages  autonomy  and  inde- 
pendent judgment.  This  timidity  born  of  moral  dependence  is 
reflected  in  the  period.     The  great  leaders  were  overwhelmed 


542  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

with  all  sorts  of  moral  questions.  The  doctrinal  questions  were 
answered  in  great  fulness  in  creeds  that  at  once  began  to  take 
a  place  of  authority.  And  corresponding  to  these  there  was  no 
system  of  ethics  that  more  nearly  fulfilled  the  same  function 
than  that  of  Melanchthon.  At  the  same  time  to  collect  the 
authorities  and  give  categorical  answers  in  the  forms  of  the  old 
casuistry  became  seemingly  increasingly  necessary  as  the  Protes- 
tant movement  gradually  began  to  rest  rather  on  authority  than 
upon  the  great  primary  enthusiasms. 

It  is  hardly  casuistry  that  we  find  in  Luther's  letters  and 
"Tabletalk."  He,  like  his  master,  taught  as  one  having  au- 
thority, and  not  as  the  casuists.  This  advice  only  becomes  casu- 
istry when  some  one  like  Petzel  gathers  it  together  in  the  sayings 
of  Melanchthon,'  and  these  decisions  become  quasi-authoritative, 
and  men  like  Amesius  and  Baldwin  begin  to  lecture  upon 
them.^  The  first  Thesaurus  seems  to  have  been  that  of  Dedc- 
ken,^  but  from  that  on  the  literature  began  to  multiply.  Hap- 
pily casuistry  in  this  sense  was  out  of  place  even  where 
Protestantism  had  only  come  to  half  self-consciousness.  The 
only  real  basis  for  casuistry  must  be  a  central  authority.  The 
wide  range  of  the  Biblical  literature  shut  out  any  thorough- 
going use  of  it  as  such  authority.  We  will  only  take  up  as  an 
illustration  the  work  of  Osiander.* 

He  discusses  at  considerable  length  the  meaning  and  function 
of  conscience,  but  gives  us  only  the  old  worn-out  material.  The 
most  original  note  is  where  he  discusses  the  "signs"  of  the  kind 
of  conscience  a  man  has.     These  are  found  in  physical  character, 


'  "  Berathschlagungen  und  Bedenken,"   1601. 

*  Amesius,  G.  (William  Ames):  "De  conscientia  et  ejus  jure  vel  casibus,  libri 
quinque,  .  .  .  1630,"  Ed.  nova,  Amsterd.,  1634,  1654,  Oxford,  1659.  "Con- 
science, with  the  power  and  cases  thereof.  Divided  into  V.  bookes  .  .  .  Trans- 
lated out  of  Latine,"  etc.,  3  parts,  portr.  (London,  1639),  and  Baldwin  (Baldui- 
nus),  F.:    "Casus  Conscientiae,"  1621-1627. 

^  Dedeken,  M.:  "Thesaurus  consiliorum  decisionum,"  edited  by  Gerhard, 
167 1,  in  3  vols. 

*  Osiander,  Johann  Adam:  "Theologiaj  casualis,  in  qua  quaestiones,  dubia  et 
cauus  conscientia;  circa  credenda  et  agenda  enucleanlur,"  Tubingen,  1680. 


THE  NEW  PROTESTANT   CASUISTRY        543 

and  the  list  is  careful  and  painstaking,  but  of  course  futile/ 
for  the  psychology  is  really  misleading. 

Then  follows  a  discussion  of  law  as  the  norm  of  conscience.^ 
All  the  various  types  of  law,  natural  law,  the  law  of  nations, 
ecclesiastical  law,  and  human  laws,  etc.,  etc.  The  discussion 
is  inconsequent  for  lack  of  really  distinguishing  between  the 
types.  Next  follows  a  discussion  on  the  examination  of  con- 
science,' which  is  interesting  as  dealing  with  the  dispute 
about  probabilism.  Of  course  the  "Gospel"  is  exalted  as  the 
sole  source  of  truth,  and  Augustine  quoted  for  this  position.^ 
The  cure  of  conscience  forms  the  next  theme.  Since  man's 
fall  he  has  needed  a  remedy,  and  the  satisfaction  of  Jesus' 
death  is  set  forth.  This  is  applied  in  the  Gospel,  baptism, 
and  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  theology  of  the  treatise  is  that  of 
Melanchthon,  and  Calvin's  doctrine  of  perseverance  is  rejected.^ 
From  this  on  the  book  is  theological,  and  along  the  lines  of 
Melanchthon' s  Loci,  with  much  scholastic  material,  as  in  the 
treatment  of  angels.®  The  second  part  deals  with  the  moral  law 
and  the  Decalogue.'  Here  the  treatment  becomes  distinctly 
scholastic  and  casuistical.  Very  sharp  and  interesting  are  many 
of  the  discussions,  but  Scripture  words  and  the  interpretations 
of  Scripture  words  and  the  decisions  of  the  church  fathers  are 
the  means  of  getting  at  authoritative  answers  to  the  various 
questions  of  conscience  given.  Nor  is  there  actually  any  advance 
upon  the  material  which  was  already  common  possession. 
More  interesting,  although  again  deeply  disappointing,  is  the 
treatment  of  Christian  liberty^  in  the  section  dealing  with 
incorruption.®  This  liberty  is  freedom  from  bondage  to  sin, 
from  the  curse  of  the  law,  from  the  traditions  of  men  and 
churchly  rites,  which  are  by  their  nature  indifferent.  When,  how- 
ever, this  liberty  is  set  forth  more  at  length,  distinct  limitations 
are  noted  and  the  doctrine  is  guarded  against  the  claims  of  the 
"Anabaptists,  Libertines,  Quakers,  and  such  like."     On  the 


»pp.  31-40. 

2  Pp.  43-64- 

3  Pp.  68-149. 

*P.  117. 

*p.  163. 

'Pp.  169-714. 

'Pp-  725-1472- 

'  P-  1473 

'  "De  Adiaphoris," 

1473-1540- 

544  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

whole  the  position  is  that  rather  of  Luther  than  of  Melanchthon, 
although  this  is  a  question  rather  for  dogmatics  than  ethics. 
The  treatise  closes  with  discussions  of  temptations,  penitence, 
confession,  and  absolution. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Pars  Secunda  is  really  fruitful.  Its 
method  precludes  the  highest  fruitfulness.  It  is,  however,  an 
honest  attempt  to  deal  with  the  situation  and  to  gather  authori- 
tative decisions  on  ethical  questions.  That  casuistry  did  not 
flourish  is  due  to  the  fact  that  increasingly  the  genius  of  Prot- 
estantism and  the  new  spirit  of  ethical  autonomy  and  spiritual 
maturity  makes  itself  felt  in  the  church  and  in  the  nations  in 
which  Protestantism  maintained  itself. 

IX.      THE  ETHICS  OF  PIETISM  IN  THE  CONTINENTAL  CHURCHES 

One  function  of  all  organization  is  the  conservations  of  values 
attained  by  hard  struggle  and  which  w^ould  be  lost  unless  fixed 
in  definite  forms.  The  hardening  of  life  into  institutions  and 
traditions  is  needful  if  the  acquirements  of  the  past  are  to  be 
handed  down  to  the  succeeding  generations.  At  the  same  time 
the  process  is  attended  by  grave  dangers.  No  formulation  of 
a  great  vital  movement  is  ever  complete.  How  miserably  the 
primitive  church  formulated  the  teachings  of  Jesus  or  of  Paul! 

Thus  it  happened  that  the  Protestant  formulation  of  the 
great  awakening  was  exceedingly  incomplete.  In  the  first  place 
important  elements,  such  as  were  represented  by  the  Anabap- 
tist movement,  were  either  ignored  or  trampled  upon.  That 
these  despised  Anabaptists  had  definite  and  most  important 
contributions  to  make  is  beyond  all  doubt.  That  they  were 
often  wrong  and  that  the  bonds  of  an  excessive  literalism  fet- 
tered them  may  be  admitted.  But  Protestantism  was  a  poorer, 
meaner  thing  because  they  were  excluded  from  its  active  fellow- 
ship. 

In  the  second  place  far  too  much  stress  was  laid  upon  intel- 
lectual formulation,  for  which  in  fact  the  world  was  not  ready. 
For  this  reason  the  creeds  are  heavy  with  a  half-digested  scholas- 


THE   ETHICS   OF  PIETISM  545 

ticism,  and  are  in  bondage  to  a  view  of  the  world  from  which 
men  were  eagerly  preparing  to  emancipate  themselves. 

It  was  also  the  misfortune  of  the  Reformation  that  wars  and 
political  struggle  both  in  England  and  on  the  Continent  robbed 
her  of  energy  and  absorbed  her  strength.  The  cold,  bare 
dogmatic  Protestantism  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies sends  a  chill  down  the  back  of  the  modern  man.  The 
forms  of  her  piety  seemed  to  have  lost  so  much  in  the  struggle 
to  barely  exist.  Nearly  all  £esthetic  values  were  gone.  The 
ministry  of  feudal  Romanism  to  the  hunger  of  human  life  for 
color,  for  art  expression  in  singing,  acting,  and  painting  was  a 
real  and  very  beautiful  ministry.  Nearly  all  of  this  seemed 
hopelessly  swept  away. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  burden  of  life's  responsibility  had  been 
much  lightened,  whether  wholesomely  or  not,  by  the  willingness 
of  mother  church  to  take  some  of  the  most  burdensome  of  these 
upon  herself.  The  Reformation  left  every  man  alone,  face  to 
face  with  God,  and  the  God  of  the  Reformation  was  not  always 
the  forgiving  Father  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

And  perhaps  the  worst  of  the  situation  was  that  the  inwardness 
of  faith  which  had  pervaded  the  teachings  of  Luther,  Calvin, 
Bucer,  Bullinger,  Zwingli,  and  the  others  was  all  too  often  lost 
in  post-Reformation  times  in  formal  intellectualism  and  ritual 
correctness.  The  pure  word  became  intellectual  orthodoxy  and 
the  right  administration  of  the  sacraments  became  sacramental 
magic. 

Slowly  there  came,  however,  over  the  face  of  Protestantism 
a  change.  Albrecht  Ritschl  does  not  think  very  highly  of  the 
change,'  and  in  an  exceedingly  careful  analysis  of  the  movement 
has  shown  beyond  much  question  the  survival  in  it  of  types  of 
thinking  neither  essentially  Christian  nor  modern.  When, 
however,  he  goes  on  to  demonstrate  that  this  type  of  thinking  has 
its  origin  in  the  reformed  theology  and  is  a  strange  element  in 
Lutheranism,^  it  is  harder  to  follow  him.     The  Roman  Catholic 

'  Ritschl,  Albrecht:   "Geschichte  des  Pietismus,"  3  vols.,  Bonn,  1880. 
^  "Geschichte  des  Pietismus,"  vol.  II,  pp.  s~33- 


^ 


\ 


546  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

forms  of  piety  never  really  disappeared  from  either  Luther  or 
reformed  thought.  The  ascetic  mysticism  that  marks  certain 
phases  of  Roman  Catholic  piety  survived  in  hymn  and  sermon 
and  in  the  thought  and  feeling  of  both  communions. 

Whether  Ritschl  is  right  in  tracing  the  actual  spread  of  Pietism 
to  the  work  of  men  like  Gisbert  Voet,  Johann  Coccejus,  Jodocus 
van  Lodenstyn,  de  Labadie,  and  others,  the  present  writer  does 
not  know.  The  works  of  these  men  are  obscure,  and  first-hand 
knowledge  is  difficult  and  demands  theological  expertness  as  a 
systematic  theologian.  The  student  of  ethics  will,  therefore, 
soon  find  himself  lost  in  the  minutiae  of  dogmatic  discussion. 
What,  however,  does  at  once  appear  when  typical  pietistic 
thought  is  examined  from  the  ethical  point  of  view  is  that  the 
pietistic  movement  had  a  distinct  and  valuable  contribution  to 
the  advancing  spirit  of  Protestantism.  This  contribution  is, 
nevertheless,  not  chiefly  theological,  but  ethical  and  religious. 
The  fact  that  controversy  forced  it  into  theological  forms  was 
unfortunate,  for  theological  formulation  was  entirely  contrary  to 
its  genius.  No  doubt  Ritschl  is  right  in  his  main  contention 
that  the  theological  formulation  is  reactionary.  At  the  same 
time  Ritschl's  error  is  the  resolving  of  Pietism  into  a  theological 
movement.  It  became  this,  so  far  as  it  was  this,  only  because 
of  radical  misunderstanding  of  its  fundamental  interest. 

Just  as  in  regard  to  the  evangelical  movement  in  England,^ 
which  was  so  nearly  related  to  Pietism,  the  awakening  was  only 
accidentally  theological.  It  really  aff"ected  various  types  of 
mind  and  thought.  It  was  itself  never  consciously  an  attempt 
to  engage  in  theological  reformation.     In  the  work  of  Spcner,^ 

'  Cf.  author's  "  Social  Significance  of  the  Religious  Movements  of  the  Seven- 
teenth and  Eighteenth  Centuries  in  England." 

*  Spener,  Philip  Jakob  (1635-1705),  was  born  in  Rappoltstein,  at  the  foot  of 
the  Volgesian  Mountains,  in  Alsace.  He  was  preacher  in  Strasburg  and  in 
Frankfurt -a. -M.,  as  well  as  in  Dresden  and  Berlin,  where  he  died.  His  life  and 
work  has  been  best  described  by  Griinberg  (Paul)  in  three  volumes  (Gottingen, 
1893-1906).  In  the  third  volume,  pp.  205-388,  is  a  wonderfully  complete 
bibliography,  in  three  parts:  i.  A  complete  list  of  Spener's  own  writings;  2. 
A  systematic  list  of  the  literature  referring  to  Spener;  3.  A  chronological  list  of 
the  literature  of  Spener.     The  only  English  work  referred  to  of  importance  is  by 


THE   ETHICS   OF   PIETISM  547 

what  most  strikes  us  is  the  practical  goal.  He  wanted  to  make 
the  church  life  religious  and  ethical.  He  regarded  himself  as 
the  interpreter  again  to  the  church  of  Luther,  and  he  was  to  a 
great  extent  right.  His  catechism^  is  in  immediate  connection 
with  the  main  thought  of  Luther,  namely,  faith  as  an  inner  life 
enabling  us  to  keep  the  commandments.  He  begins,  to  be  sure, 
where  reformed  theology  would  also  be  likely  to  begin,  namely, 
with  the  Bible.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  in  his  practical  use  of 
the  Bible  he  shows  great  freedom  and  at  times  even  critical 
vigor,  and  his  attitude  is  not  one  of  slavish  literalism. 

The  ethics  of  Spener  are  distinctly  a  religious  individualism. 
The  relations  of  the  regenerate  man  to  his  neighbor  reveal  the 
reality  of  his  relations  to  God.  The  traditional  orthodoxy 
sought  the  evidence  for  regeneration  in  "pure  doctrine"  and  the 
proper  use  of  the  sacraments.  For  all  practical  purposes  the 
church  guaranteed  to  the  believer  the  reality  of  his  faith  by 
setting  forth  this  pure  doctrine  and  by  obedience  to  the  sacra- 
mental  institution.     Against  this   Spener  protested.     And   in 

Richard,  Marie  E.:  "Philip  Jacob  Spener  and  His  Work,"  Philadelphia,  1897, 
154  pages.  (This  work  contains  also  "Augustus  Hermann  Francke  and  His 
Work.")  The  English  reader  will  find  a  short  article  on  him  in  the  "Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica."  A  real  service  might  be  rendered  by  an  adaptation  of 
Griinberg's  work  for  English  readers.  Spener  is  best  studied  in  his  numerous 
sermons.  C/.,  also,  "Pia  Desideria:  oder  hertzliches  Verlangen,  nach  Gotte- 
fiilliger  Besserung  der  wahren  Evangelischen  Kirchen  .  .  .  ,"  Frankfurt-a.-M., 
1676,  a  good  edition  appeared  in  Leipsic,  1841,  a  revised  edition  with  notes  by 
F.  W.  P.  L.  Feldner,  Dresden,  1846:  "Das  geistliche  Priesterthum  aus  gott- 
lichen  Wort  kurtzlich  beschrieben,  und  mit  einstimmenden  Zeugnissen  gottsel- 
iger  Lehrer  bekrafftiget,"  etc.,  Frankfort,  1677;  and  Herrn  D.  P.  J.  Spener's 
"...  Letzte  theologische  Bedencken  und  andere  briefHiche  Antworten,  welche 
von  dem  seel,  autore,  erst  nach  seinem  Tode  zu  ediren,  anbefohlen  .  .  .  nebst 
einer  Vorrede,"  Hr.  Baron  C.  H.  von  Canstein,  etc.,  3  Theile,  Halle,  1711;  a 
good  little  book  is  Spener's  (Philip  Jakob)  "Hauptschriften,  bearbeitet  und 
eingeleitet  von  Paul  Griinberg,"  in  220  pages,  Gotha  (Perthes),  1889  ("Biblio- 
thek  theologischer  Klassiker,"  vol.  XXI). 

■  "Einfache  Erklarung  der  christlichen  Lehre  nach  der  Ordnung  des  kleinen 
Katechismus  Dr.  Martin  Luther's  in  Frage  und  Antwort  verfasst,"  various 
editions.  Third  edition,  edited  by  J.  A.  Detzer,  Erlangen,  1846,  another  in  the 
same  year  at  Berlin;  the  latter  is  the  edition  the  present  writer  has  used,  being 
the  one  accessible  to  him. 


548  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

his  protest  he  reasserted  the  inward  character  of  faith,  and 
seemed  to  his  critics  unchurchly  and  anti-ecclesiastical.  Yet 
Spener  was  never  a  separatist/  and  when  the  "collegia"  began 
to  separate  he  ceased  to  organize  these  "collegia."^  Yet  they 
rested  upon  his  own  most  highly  prized  teaching  of  the  universal 
priesthood  of  believers,  and  they  were  a  protest  in  the  interests 
of  Christian  democracy  against  the  usurpation  of  professional 
religious  teachers. 

In  general  his  ethics  are  divided  into  "  Duties  to  God."  First, 
those  virtues  that  have  their  seat  in  the  heart,  and  secondly,  the 
duties  that  spring  from  these  virtues,  and  thirdly,  our  attitude 
to  the  means  of  grace.  Then  duties  to  the  neighbor,  in 
general  and  in  particular  social  position.  And  then  lastly, 
duties  to  one's  self,  in  general  and  particular.  This  fulfilment 
of  duties  is  evidence  of  regeneration. 

It  was  not  Spener's  individual  fault  that  he  carried  over  a 
certain  tone  of  world-flight  into  his  thinking.  Puritanism  has 
its  roots  in  the  thinking  of  the  earliest  reformers,  and  the  some- 
what dualistic  conception  of  life  that  underlies  Protestantism, 
/  in  many  of  its  forms,  was  indeed  Roman  Catholic,  but  came  over 
with  Luther,  Calvin,  and  nearly  all  the  great  reformers  into  the 
more  modern  world.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Pietism  was 
often  a  strong  and  effective  protest  against  a  priestly  church  in 
its  intolerance  and  excessive  claim  to  have  authority.  It  took  up 
the  struggle  against  intellectualism  and  based  itself  on  the  claim 
of  the  priesthood  of  all  believers.  Religion,  said  Spener  con- 
stantly, was  not  knowledge  but  practice,  it  was  a  habitus  prac- 
iicus.^ 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  things  that  his  most  vigorous 
critic,  Valentin  E.  Loescher,  charges  against  Spener.  He  notes 
his  indifference  to  the  "doctrine,"  his  undervaluation  of  the 

'  Cf.  Griinberg's  careful  citation  of  passages,  vol.  Ill,  p.  187. 

*  The  "Collegia  pietatis,"  as  the  forerunners  of  the  evangelical  prayer  meeting 
and  the  Methodist  class  meeting,  are  full  of  interest.  "Pious,"  i.  e.,  "reawak- 
ened," persons  gathered  together  outside  the  regular  church  services  for  self- 
examination,  instruction,  reading  of  the  Bible,  prayer,  and  singing. 

'"Des  geistige  Priestestum,"  and  in  many  sermons. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   PIETISM 


549 


means  of  grace  (of  course  the  sacraments) ,  the  underestimate  of 
orders,  for  only  converted  men  are  in  true  orders,  that  work- 
righteousness  is  mingled  with  faith.  Of  course  he  also  took  I 
issue  with  his  qhiliasm,  i  his  mysticism,  and  his  relative  indif- 
ference to  many  things  important  to  ecclesiasticism,  Ritschl,  j 
indeed,  does  not  regard  Spener  as  a  thorough-going  pietist,  at 
the  same  time  Spener  almost  summed  up  the  movement,  and  it 
is  quite  evident  that  the  dogmatic  weakness  of  Pietism  blinded 
Ritschl  to  many  of  its  religious  and  ethical  values.  With  many 
weaknesses  Pietism  was  yet  a  call  to  greater  inwardness  and  to 
a  less  dogmatic  and  more  practical  Christian  life.  Systematic 
ethics  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  made  distinct  advance.  The 
foundation  laid  was  too  narrowly  individual,  the  "religiosity" 
was  too  much  modelled  after  the  contemplative  piety  of  Tauler 
and  the  "Teutsche  Theologia."  The  development  of  its  life  ^ 
was  influenced,  undoubtedly,  by  unwholesome  traditions  with  )  / 
regard  to  the  undervaluation  of  this  world  and  overestimate  of 
what  George  Eliot  cleverly  called  "  other- worldliness."  If  the 
student  of  systematic  ethics  goes  to  Pietism  or  to  the  evangelical 
revival,  which  was  its  daughter,  expecting  to  find  advance  toward 
ethical  autonomy  and  a  more  scientific  and  systematic  treatment 
of  the  great  problems  of  a  really  Protestant  ethics,  he  will  be 
disappointed.  The  formal  ethics  are  still  too  much  in  the  bonds 
of  a  traditional  and  scholastic  view  of  the  world  to  constitute  a 
basis  even  for  advance.  If,  however,  he  on  that  account  under- 
estimates the  social  service  of  Pietism,  it  is  because  he  has  fallen 
into  the  mistake  which  Ritschl  seems  to  have  made,  and  deals 
with  it  too  exclusively  as  an  intellectual  movement. 

How  little  it  was  this  is  seen  in  the  life  and  work  of  one  who 
next  to  Spener  may  be  said  to  have  given  Pietism  its  historic 
form,  the  great  leader  of  Pietism,  Francke}    As  a  theological 

*  Francke,  August  Hermann  (1663-1727).  In  1692  (January  7)  he  came  to 
Halle-a.-S.  and  there  really  gave  Pietism  a  new  direction  as  pastor  and  professor. 
His  works  are  numerous:  "Offentliches  Zeugniss  vom  Werk,  Wort  und  Dienst 
Gottes,"  3  vols.,  1702,  also  Halle,  1739;  "Segensvolle  Fussstapfen  des  noch 
lebenden  und  waltenden,  liebreichen  und  getreuen  Gottes,"  1709,  also  Halle, 
1769;  "Epicedia,"  Halle,  1727;   "Idea  studiosi  theologise,"  Halle,  1712;   "Mo- 


550  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

thinker  he  is  even  less  eflective  than  Spener,  and  Ritschl's  judg- 
ment on  this  side  of  his  life  and  thought  seems  all  too  just.  At 
the  same  time  this  is  not  the  whole  of  Francke's  life  and  thought. 
He  not  only  aimed  at  a  measure  of  inwardness  for  the  Christian 
life,  which  the  scholastic  orthodoxy  sadly  missed,  but  he  found 
in  Christian  activity  the  proper  test  of  the  reality  of  that  inward- 
ness. Prayer  was  for  Francke  communion  with  a  living  God. 
It  is  hardly  fair  to  Francke  to  find  in  his  emphasis  upon  prayer 
anything  like  the  mechanical  magic  which  marks  the  lowest 
estate  of  Roman  Catholic  prayer.*  The  reproach  is,  however, 
just  that  it  was  often  an  emphasis  upon  the  individual  relation- 
ship with  God  apart  from  relationship  to  him  in  the  social 
activities  of  the  church  life.  At  the  same  time  Francke  never 
really  underestimated  the  church.  His  missionary  zeal  was  the 
dawning  of  a  better  day  for  German  missionary  activity.  His 
orphan  schools  and  students'  homes  were  in  direct  contact  with 
the  church,  and  by  his  long  and  faithful  pastorate  he  raised  the 
whole  conception  of  the  privilege  and  calling  of  the  ministry. 
His  theology  abounds,  no  doubt,  in  remembrances  of  scholastic 

I  Roman  theology,  but  so  does  all  Protestant  theology.  We  have 
done  very  little  save  clear  away  some  of  the  more  offensive 
intrusions.     Where  Francke  advanced  was  in  his  conception  of 

-^a  dynamic  faith  revealing  itself  in  personal  piety  and  in  social 
service.  That  the  type  of  personal  piety  had  many  false  lines 
in  it,  and  that  the  social  service  was  neither  as  intelligent  nor  as 
thorough-going  as  it  might  have  been,  is  simply  true  of  Francke 
and  some  of  the  rest  of  us. 

His  ethics  were,  however,  still  very  individualistic,  sometimes 
sentimental,  and  often  moved  too  much  in  the  heavy  armor  of 
theological  formulae,  as  those  of  regeneration  and  penitence, 

nita  pastoralia,"  Halle,  1717;  "Methodus  studii  theologici,"  Halle,  1723;  etc., 
etc.  Kramer's  (Gustav)  "A.  H.  Francke,  ein  Lebensbild,"  in  two  volumes 
(Halle-a.-S.,  1880,  1882),  is  the  best  biography,  although  not  critical.  Cj. 
also  Marie  E.  Richard's  ".\ugustus  Hermann  Francke  and  His  Work  under 
Spener  .  .  ."  Sec  also  Ritschl,  Albrecht:  "Geschichte  des  Pietismus,"  Bonn, 
1880,  vol.  II,  pp.  249-294. 
'  As  in  Ritschl,  vol.  II,  pp.  259,^. 


THE   ETHICS   OF   PIETISM  551 

without  seriously  facing  the  great  ethical  questioning  of  even  his 
own  day.  While  all  this  is  true,  the  outcome  of  Francke's 
activity  was  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  both  the  church  and  the 
nation,  and  his  own  services  should  never  be  underestimated 
because  of  the  feeble  caricatures  of  the  pietistic  epigonen. 

The  chief  ethical  weakness  of  the  pietistic  movement  was  its 
failure  to  formulate  an  ethical  principle  for  the  judgment  of 
life's  actual  situations,  and  the  consequent  relegation  to  law  and 
convention  of  some  of  the  most  important  and  educative  of 
moral  decisions.  It  is  very  easy  to  set  up  a  law,  "Thou  shalt  not 
do  so  and  so";  it  is  far  harder  but  also  far  more  important  to 
teach  men  to  apply  fundamental  principles  to  the  constantly 
changing  and  shifting  circumstances  of  life.  The  ethics,  of 
Pietism  shared  with  monasticism  and  Puritanism  an  element 
of  world-flight.  The  world  danced,  therefore  the  Christian 
must  not  dance.  The  world  played  cards,  therefore  the  Chris- 
tian must  not  play  cards.  The  world  went  to  the  theatre,  there- 
fore the  Christian  must  not  go  to  the  theatre.  The  world 
amused  itself  with  games  and  f^^tes,  therefore  the  Christian  must 
play  no  games  and  attend  no  fetes.  The  fatal  compromises 
made  with  the  world  were  so  abhorrent  to  Pietism,  it  so  rightly 
judged  a  lukewarm  Christianity  as  more  harmful  than  actual 
opposition,  that  it  sought  to  cut  the  knot  and  get  out  of  any 
danger  even  of  compromise.  The  result  was  the  hypocrisy,  the 
sense  of  unreality,  the  pharisaism  that  haunts  all  legalism  and 
all  attempts  at  world-flight. 

The  men  we  have  been  considering  did  not  leave  the  church. 
They  did  not  even  try  to  construct  an  imperium  in  imperio,  but 
they  gave  the  inevitable  basis  upon  which  such  attempts  should 
be  made.  Some  sought  in  inner  circles  within  the  church  to 
realize  the  dream  of  a  purer  type  of  Christian  living  for  them- 
selves at  least,^  and  free  from  the  amusements  and  the  tempta- 
tions of  the  world. 

*  Johann  Georg  Walch:  "Historische  und  theologische  Einleitung  in  die 
Religionsstreitigkeiten  der  evangelisch-lutherischen  Kirche,  von  der  Reformation 
an  bis  auf  jetzige  Zeiten,"  5  vols.,  Jena,  1733,  especially  vol.  II,  pp.  357-400. 


552  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Others  again  found  this  hard  or  uncongenial,  and  pushed  by 
the  logic  of  the  situation  began  to  separate  themselves  from 
organized  Christianity  and  to  found  brotherhoods  for  the  culti- 
vation of  their  life  and  the  speedy  furtherance  of  their  central 
purpose.  Such  an  attempt  was  made  with  the  greatest  success 
by  Zinzendorj} 

He  found  the  old  Moravian  church  which  had  taken  refuge 
on  his  estates  the  foundation  for  a  brotherhood  within  the 
Lutheran  church.  The  missionary  purpose  was  his  and  their 
controlling  and  central  ideal.  The  ethics  of  the  movement 
exhibit  the  type  of  religious  individualism  made  familiar  in 
Spener,  but  the  religious  life  represents  even  more  strongly  a 
reversal  to  mediaeval  piety.  The  person  and  physical  sufferings 
of  the  Saviour  are  in  the  foreground,  and  mystic  devotion  and 
even  ecstasy  were  cultivated.  The  missionary  zeal  and  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  to  social  service  (nursing,  teaching,  etc.) 
saved  the  situation,  but  the  theology  and  ethics  are  not  in  any 
sense  pronouncedly  Protestant.  The  Scriptures  are  the  external 
authority,  with,  however,  that  dash  of  subjectivism  that  has 
always  made  this  type  of  Roman  Catholic  devotion  difficult  to 
manage  even  face  to  face  with  the  imperial  hierarchy  (Tauler, 
Suso,  etc.).  As  over  against  State  Lutheranism  it  had  a  very 
hard  time,  and  never  has  flourished  save  where  it  commanded 
the  situation  absolutely,  as  at  Herrnhut. 

'  Zinzendorf,  Count  Nicholas  Lewis  (1700-1760),  who  gave  the  refugees  from 
Moravia  not  only  a  home,  but  also  a  new  organization.  His  works  are  numerous. 
Godfrey  Clemens  has  collected  some  of  his  sermons:  "Ausziige  aus  des  seligen 
Ordinarii  der  Evangelischen  Briiderkirche,  sowol  ungedrukten  als  gedrukten 
Rcden  iiber  biblische  Texte  nach  Ordnung  der  Biicher  heiliger  Schrift  .  .  . 
etc.,"  10  vols.,  Barby,  1763,  etc.  His  hymns  are  collected  by  A.  Knapp: 
"Geistliche  Gedichte,  .  .  .  gesammelt  und  gesichtet  .  .  .  mit  einer  Lebens- 
skitze,"  etc.,  Stuttgart  and  Tubingen,  1845.  Bengcl  (Johann  Albrecht)  has  a 
critique  of  the  movement:  "  Abriss  der  sogenannten  Briidergemeine,  in  welchem 
die  Lehre  und  die  ganze  Sache  gcprufet,"  Stuttgart,  1751,  neucr  unvcriinderter 
Abdruck,  Berlin,  1858.  The  most  quoted  life  is  that  of  Spangenberg  (August 
Gottlieb):  "Leben  des  Herrn  N.  L.  Grafen  und  Hcrrn  von  Zinzendorf  und 
Pottendorf,"  Barby,  1773-177S,  8  parts  (the  pagination  is  continuous  throughout) 
The  Life  of  N.  L.  Count  Zinzendorf  .  .  .  translated  Cin  an  abridged  form) 
by  S.  Jackson,  London,  1838;  a  still  ijricfcr  edition  by  J.  Jackson,  London,  1844. 


THE   ETHICS   OF  PIETISM  553 

Zinzendorf  lived  to  see  his  movement  floating  on  the  tide  of 
triumphant  Pietism  that  swept  over  Germany.  He  had  been 
banished  from  Saxony  in  the  early  days,  but  now  was  recalled 
and  loaded  with  tokens  of  confidence  and  recognition.  Pietism 
was  never  a  proletariat  movement  in  the  strict  sense  in  Ger- 
many. It  never  even  had  a  large  proletariat  following  such  as 
Methodism  won  in  England.  It  affected  the  smaller  trades- 
people and  the  urban  population  at  a  certain  middle-class  stage, 
and  appealed  strongly,  like  Whitefield's  movement,  to  the  aristoc- 
racy. Zinzendorf  was  himself  brought  up  by  his  titled  grand- 
mother, and  she  had  been  one  of  Spener's  personal  friends  and 
supporters.  Neither  in  theology  nor  in  ethics  was  there  any 
original  note  or  any  great  advance,  save  only  as  religious  zeal 
enforced  a  measure  of  inwardness  and  broke  down  formalism 
and  dogmatic  correctness  as  a  measure  of  life. 

The  pietist  was  taught  to  do  a  quite  unwholesome  amount  of 
introspection,  and  the  feelings  were  most  unduly  worked  upon 
and  emphasized.  Fanaticism  lay  often  close  on  the  border 
line,  and  Puritanism  was  the  outcome,  with  its  almost  inevitable 
deadness  and  mechanical  religiosity.  Hypocrisy  is  always  an 
easier  charge  to  make  than  to  prove.  But  beyond  question  the 
pietistic  movement  produced  in  its  later  stages  on  the  minds  of 
many  the  impression  of  hypocrisy. 

The  separation  of  groups  of  pietists  from  the  State  church  was 
made  necessary  by  the  foolish  narrowness  of  State  governments 
as  in  Wurtemberg,^  and  the  usual  results  of  such  separations 
appeared.  Fanaticism  is  the  child  of  persecution  and  intoler- 
ance breeds  narrowness  and  extravagance.  These  all  appear 
in  the  history  of  the  little  sects  and  divisions  that  sprang  up  in 
the  wake  of  the  great  pietistic  revival.  With  them,  however, 
the  main  stream  of  history  can  hardly  reckon. 

'  Systematic  ethics  finds  little  new  in  the  teachings  of  these  groups.  For  an 
account  of  them,  see  Luthardt's  "Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik,"  vol.  Ill, 
pp.  248-331,  of  the  edition  (in  one  vol.),  1893,  but  the  details  are  too  local  to 
interest  the  English  student. 


554  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 


X.      THE  ETHICS  OF  POST-TRmENTESfE  ROMAN  CATHOLICISM 

It  is  a  false  assumption  often  made  by  Protestants  that  the 
great  awakening  was  wholly  a  break  with  Rome.  The  Council 
of  Constance  (1414)  began  a  distinct  reformation,  which,  how- 
ever, seemingly  defeated  resulted  in  many  most  important 
changes  in  the  Roman  policy.  The  attitude  of  the  University 
of  Paris  was  significant.  It  made  a  steady  demand  for  exactly 
the  step  which  at  first  marked  Luther's  attitude.  Already  in 
1409  Gersoti^  asked  for  a  council,  and  he  took  the  high  ground 
of  the  supremacy  of  a  council  over  the  Pope.^  Gerson's  mysti- 
cism was  not  metaphysical,  but  rather  a  religious  and  sentimental 
emotionalism.  It  included  the  "contemplation,  ecstasy,  rap- 
ture, melting,  transformation,  union,  exultation,  joy,  joy  to  be 
in  the  spirit,"  etc.,^  and  is  not  exclusive  of  the  discursive  reason. 
Gerson  was  a  nominalist,  but  sought  to  avoid  the  scepticism  of 
nominalism  far  short  of  resting  simply  on  authority.  We  have 
immediate  knowledge  of  God,  and  the  powers  of  the  mind  are 
discussed  under  the  two  heads  of  "cognitive  and  effective."  * 
At  the  same  time  his  ethics  does  not  mark  any  advance  upon 
mystical  scholasticism  of  the  type  of  Bonaventura,  for  example; 
and  Dionysius  and  the  Fourth  Gospel   are  used  uncritically. 

*  Gerson,  Jean  Charlier,  born  December  14,  1365,  died  July  12,  1429.  The 
founder,  in  a  sense,  of  Gallicanism.  Chief  works  (from  our  point  of  view)  are: 
"Espistola  de  Reformatione  Theologiae"  (1400);  "De  Monte  Contemplationis"; 
"De  Mystica  theologia  speculativa";  "De  Mystica  theologia  practica."  Edi- 
tions of  his  works,  Paris,  1606  ("Opera  .  .  .  auctiora  et  castigatiora,  inque 
partes  quatuor  distributa  .  .  .  Accessit  vita  Gersonis  .  .  .  ,"  edited  by  E. 
Reicher,  in  four  parts).  An  edition  by  M.  L.  Ellies  Du  Pin,  Antwerp,  in  5  vols., 
1706.  The  best  monograph  said  to  be  that  of  Schwab  (Johann  Baptist):  "Jo- 
hannes Gerson.  Eine  Monographic,"  Wiirzburg,  1858.  The  writer  has  not 
seen  it. 

*  Opera  omnia,  Antwerp  edition,  1706,  torn.  II,  pars  2,  p.  161. 

^  "Consideratio  prima  dc  triplici  Theologia,"  pars  i,  consid.  2,  p.  366;  vol.  Ill, 
Antwerp  edition. 

*  "Expcdit  ad  ipsius  Theologia;  mysticae  cognitionem  speculativam  acquircn- 
dam,  naturam  animaj  rationalis,  et  ejus  potentias,  tarn  cognitivas,  quam  affcct- 
ivas  cognoscere,"  "De  mystica  Theol.."  pars  2,  consid.  9  (p,  369,  Antwerp 
edition). 


POST-TRIDENTINE  CATHOLICISM  555 

At  one  point,  however,  he  rises  to  a  high  level.  He  asserts  in 
true  Neoplatonic  sense  the  immediate  vision.  Intelligence  is 
unified,  and  is  capable  of  receiving  light  immediately  from  God 
in  which  and  through  which  the  first  principles  are  known  to 
be  true.^  Then  he  brings  this  immediate  knowledge  in  the 
"Theologia  Practica"  into  direct  relationship  with  morals.  It 
is  a  pity  that  tradition  blinded  him  to  the  ultimate  logic  of  this 
position,  and  that  thus  he  oscillates  between  reason  and  authority, 
between  freedom  and  casuistry.  He  was,  however,  a  thorough- 
going Catholic,  and  his  persecution  of  Huss  and  maintenance 
of  orthodoxy  was  the  outcome  of  his  real  basis  in  authority. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  an  exceedingly  independent  critic  of 
the  existent  authority  and  one  of  the  great  forces  making  for 
actual  living  righteousness.  Both  the  councils  of  Pisa  and 
Constance  were  earnest  and  to  some  degree  markedly  successful 
attempts  at  reformation.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Gerson  under- 
took popular  expositions  of  the  Ten  Commandments^  very 
much  in  the  spirit  of  the  later  Lutheran  exposition. 

When,  therefore,  the  great  awakening  came,  Rome  became 
again  profoundly  conscious  of  what  was  at  stake.  At  first  the 
insurrection  in  the  north  was  treated  with  contempt.  Then  as 
the  revolt  spread  it  was  forced  home  upon  Rome  that  her 
imperial  ambition  was  endangered,  and  she  began  the  work 
of  reconstruction.     In   this  work  Ignatius   de  Loyola^   (Don 

>  "In  qua  et  per  quam  principia  prima  cognoscuntur  esse  vera  at  certissima, 
termini  es  apprehensis,"  "De  mystica  Theologia,"  pars  2,  consid.  10  (p.  371, 
Antwerp  edition). 

2  "Opusculum  Tripertium,  de  prseceptis  Decalogi,"  Antwerp  edition,  torn.  I, 
p.  426. 

^  Ignatius  Loyola,  was  born  1491,  and  his  work  bears  the  stamp  of  his  Spanish 
birth  and  his  military  training.  His  religious  experience  was  profound  and  real. 
He  dedicated  himself  to  the  church  before  he  knew  of  her  danger  through 
Protestantism,  and  only  his  experience  at  Venice  seems  to  have  awakened  him  to 
his  real  mission.  For  full  literature,  see  Otto  Zockler's  article,  "  Jesuitenorden," 
in  Herzog-Hauck's  "Realencyklopiidie,"  vol.  VIII,  Leipsic,  1900,  pp.  742-7S4, 
and  V.  Frins's  article,  "Jesuiten,"  in  Wetzer  and  Welte's  "Kirchenlexikon," 
vol.  VI,  Freiburg-i.-B.,  1889,  cols.  1364-1424.  The  popular  "life"  by  Bouhours, 
Dominique.  "La  vie  de  S.  Ignace,  Fondateur  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus," 
Paris,  1679,  Nouvelle  edition,  "revue  et  corrigee,"  2  vols.,  Avignon,  1821.     An 


556  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Inigo  Lopez  de  Recalde  of  Loyola)  was  a  chief  instrument. 
In  a  most  remarkable  manner  he  reflected  the  nobler  side  of 
Roman  Catholic  ethics  and  faith.  His  own  experience  of  ex- 
cessive asceticism  led  him  to  rational  views  of  its  value,  such 
views  as  modern  and  intelligent  Roman  Catholicism  holds  to- 
day.^ He  became  the  father  of  modern  missions  and  the 
foundation  of  a  thorough-going  view  of  life  from  the  point  of 
view  of  authority,  absolute  and  final.^  Moreover,  the  Jesuitism 
which  he  founded  drew  firmly  and  consistently  the  only  conclus- 
ion open  to  Roman  Catholic  reasoning  from  the  premises,  and 

English  translation  "by  a  person  of  quality,"  London,  1686.  The  6th  book  is 
added  by  Butler  (Alban)  to  his  "Life,"  Dublin,  1841.  The  writer  has  not  seen 
Genelli's  "Das  Leben  des  heiligen  Ignatius  von  Loyola  .  .  .  Mit  Benut- 
zung  der  authentischen  Acten,  besonders  seiner  eigenen  Briefe,"  Innsbruck 
1848;  "The  Life  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola  .  .  .  Translated  from  the  German  of 
Christoph  Genelli  by  C.  Sainte  Foi;  and  Rendered  from  the  French  by  T.  Mey- 
rick,  London,  187 1.  Nicolini's  (Giovanni  Battista)  "History  of  the  Jesuits, 
Their  Origin,  Progress,  Doctrine  and  Designs,"  London,  1854,  in  Bohn's 
"Illustrated  Library,"  is  intemperate  in  tone.  Dollinger  (Ignaz)  and  Reusch 
(F.  H.):  "Moralstreitigkeiten  in  der  romisch-katholischen  Kirche  seit  dem 
XVI.  Jahrhundert  mit  Beitragen  zur  Geschichte  und  Charakteristik  des 
Jesuitenordens,"  Nordlingen,  i88q,  2  vols.,  mentioned  later,  is  invaluable. 

'  Asceticism  is  an  "exercise"  to  promote  efficiency.  "Since  soul  and  body  both 
come  from  the  Creator  you  should  take  both  into  account,  and  for  his  sake  not 
weaken  the  bodily  nature,  for  if  this  is  weakened  the  inner  (spirit)  cannot  be 
cfTective."  Quoted  by  Huber  from  Genelli,  pp.  382  ff.,  of  "Das  Leben  des 
hi.  Ignatius  von  Loyola." 

'  The  literature  is  gathered  in  the  two  articles  mentioned  already,  p.  555  (note). 
Luthardt  (Chr.  Ernst)  has  also  a  most  valuable  collection  of  bibliography  in  his 
"Geschichte  der  christlichen  Ethik  seit  der  Reformation,"  Lcipsic,  1893,  pp. 
1 1 5-1 5 1.  The  writer  has  found  most  useful  Ruber's  (Franz)  "Der  Jesuiten 
Orden  nach  seiner  Verfassung  und  Doctrin,  Wirksamkeit  und  Geschichte," 
Berlin,  1873  (c/.,  also,  his  "  Jcsuitenmoral,  aus  den  Quellen  dargestellt,"  Bern, 
1870),  and  Gothein's  (Eberhard)  "Ignatius  von  Loyola  und  die  Gegenreforma- 
tion,"  Halle,  1895.  Cf.,  also,  Blaise  Pascal's  "Les  Provinciales"  (many  editions 
and  translations,  the  writer  has  used  the  edition  of  M.  Prosper  Fangere,  "Les 
Provinciales,  D'apr^s  les  manuscrits  autographes  les  copies  authentiques  et  les 
Editions  originales,"  Paris,  1886,  1895,  2  vols.).  But  it  is  most  important  that 
some  one  of  the  Jesuits,  like  Gury  or  Escobar,  be  studied  at  first  hand  to  avoid 
the  caricature  of  their  teachings  easily  made  possible  by  even  lengthy  quotations. 
No  better  guide  can  be  found  for  the  material  than  Dollinger  and  Reusch's 
"Geschichte  der  Moralstreitigkeiten  in  der  romisch-kalholischcn  Kirche  seit 
dem  XVI.  Jahrhundert,"  etc  ,  Nordlingen.  1889,  2  vols. 


POST-TRIDENTINE  CATHOLICISM  557 

accepted  the  Pope  as  the  final  and  living  voice  of  the  sacramental 
institutional  church.  They  did  exactly  what  the  Puritan  State 
also  did,  they  took  their  authority  seriously  and  tried  to  apply 
it  to  actual  human  life.  It  seems  almost  absurd  to  accuse 
Jesuitism  of  "lowering  the  ethical  standards  of  the  confessional" 
by  their  lax  casuistry.  They  found  every  man  of  power  and 
prominence  with  a  "pocket  chaplain,"  and  they,  in  the  real 
interests  of  morality,  supplanted  these  by  trained  and  experi- 
enced casuists. 

The  sympathy  of  Protestantism  for  Jansenism  is  really  greatly 
misplaced.  Pascal's^  wonderfully  clever  attacks  upon  the 
Jesuits  should  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  point  of  view  Jesuitism  was  right  and  Jansenism  was 
not  only  wrong,  but  dangerously  and  divisively  wrong. 

Probabilism  is  the  only  logical  outcome  of  the  authoritarian 
position.  The  Pope  has  only  spoken  infallibly  upon  a  few 
main  doctrines.  His  administrative  authority  is  final,  but  not 
infallible.  In  the  confessional  the  priest  has  not  the  advantage 
of  access  to  infallibility.  He  has  access  only  to  authorities  and 
not  to  authority.  In  the  actual  guidance  of  complex  human 
life  it  is  not  only  important  but  absolutely  necessary  that  no 
single  human  authority  bind  the  conscience  save  that  of  the  one 
infallible  voice  where  it  has  spoken,  and  that  the  confessor  have 
a  flexible  rule  that  he  can  adapt  to  every  personal  need  where  he 
has  only  authorities.  That  such  flexibility  can  be,  nay,  will  be, 
abused  is  undoubted;  but  all  such  responsibility  can  be  abused. 
The  Jesuits  were  not  the  only  father  confessors  to  abuse  this 
trust.  But  Jesuitism  taught  in  season  and  out  of  season  that 
it  was  a  trust.  The  abuses  that  grew  up  pertain  to  all  casuistry. 
It  is  the  authoritarian  system  that  is  wrong  and  not  the  probabil- 
ism which  grew  logically  out  of  it. 

This  probabilism  consisted  in  weighing  all  the  various  authori- 
ties, and  Jesuitism,  perfectly  correctly,  contended  that  these 
authorities  could  not  be  weighed  simply  by  being  numbered, 

'  Pascal's  ethics  are  intelligently  discussed  by  Bornhausen,  Karl:  "Die  Ethik 
Pascals,"  Giessen,  1907. 


558  HISTORY   OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

but  that  any  one  grave  doctor's  opinion  might  form  a  basis  of 
judgment.  That  this  opened  the  door  to  all  sorts  of  extrava- 
gances Pascal  has  shown.  But  no  one  really  gets  from  his  pages 
a  conception  of  the  earnest  and  sincere  though  mistaken  work 
the  Jesuits  were  doing  in  trying  to  reorganize  the  confessional 
as  a  vital  moral  force.  And  the  proof  is  that  they  did  reinstate 
the  confessional.  The  Jesuit  order,  like  all  orders,  no  doubt 
became  corrupt,  and  its  condemnation,  and  suspension,  1773, 
was  thoroughly  well  deserved,  although  it  is  also  well  to  remem- 
ber that  it  was  the  unspeakable  House  of  the  Bourbons  that 
forced  the  issue  upon  Clement  XIV  and  made  it  a  condition  of 
the  return  of  the  Papal  States.*  Instead  of  being  an  instrument 
of  imperial  power,  the  Jesuits  had  cherished  the  ambition  to 
wield  the  power,  with  the  Pope  as  a  puppet  and  with  kings  and 
nations  as  their  real  subjects.  Imperial  ambition  has  always 
been  unscrupulous  whether  it  has  been  ecclesiastical  or  political, 
and  Jesuitism  was  no  exception  to  the  rule. 

At  the  same  time  the  casuistry  which  they  defended  must  be 
the  outcome  of  any  legal  ethics.  The  letter  of  the  law  is  inequit- 
able and  unjust,  and  having  been  made  to  fit  one  set  of  conditions 
works  intolerable  hardship  under  any  other  conditions.  To 
make  the  law  really  work,  and  to  use  "authority"  without  in- 
humanity, was,  without  question,  the  real  goal  of  probabilism. 
Jesuitism  had  exactly  the  same  questions  before  it  with  which 
Pharisaism  had  to  deal,  and  dealt  with  them  in  much  the  same 
way  and  for  the  same  reason — both  had  substituted  the  letter 
for  the  spirit.  The  Pharisee  said  "Corban"  (it  is  devoted)  to 
escape  the  rigor  of  rules  for  filial  duty,  and  the  Jesuit  sought  the 
way  out  of  impossible  positions  made  actual  by  legalism,  and  in 
trying  to  do  so  stumbled  into  more  impossible  positions. 

Nevertheless,  many  Protestant  critics  have  been  unjust  to  the 
ethical  discussions  of  Jesuitism.  They  occupy,  for  instance,  no 
peculiar  position  on  the  question  as  to  whether  the  end  justifies 
the  means;  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  they,  like  ethical 
teachers  in  all  ages,  are  divided  on  the  subject.     But  this  turns 

'  The  calmest  account  and  discussion  of  this  alTair,  by  Huber,  pp.  529 Jf. 


POST-TRIDENTINE  CATHOLICISM  559 

on  the  use  of  words.  It  is  most  certainly  not  "right"  to  do  evil 
that  good  may  come,  but  that  raises  the  previous  question  what 
is  "evil."  Is  it  a  "lie"  in  any  real  sense  if  a  man  saves  his  life 
by  telling  a  man  in  a  drunken  fury  an  untruth?  Is  it  "evil"  in 
any  real  sense — to  take  Gury's  illustration' — when  a  man 
is  unjustly  held  a  prisoner,  and  whose  escape  is  a  social  good, 
to  use  trickery  to  effect  his  escape?  These  are  questions  no 
abstract  letter  of  the  law  can  answer.  And  in  the  discussions 
with  Jesuits  carried  on  by  Pascal  and  lesser  writers  since,  the 
real  attitude  should  have  been  a  wholesale  rejection  of  any  and 
all  merely  external  laws  as  binding  upon  the  moral  man. 

Moreover,  in  these  controversies  most  of  the  Protestant  critics 
have  permitted  themselves  to  be  led  off  really  ethical  ground. 
There  are  always  two  considerations  in  any  action:  First,  the 
attitude  of  the  agent;  his  morality  is  determined  by  his  intent. 
Secondly,  the  social  outcome  of  the  action,  which  is  inevitable 
apart  from  all  intent,  and  may  be  "bad"  or  "good." 

The  Jesuits  were  often  fanatic  men  of  hard,  rigid,  and  some- 
times fierce  morality.  They  were  willing  to  die  ad  majorem 
Gloriam  Dei.  To  call  them  "bad"  men  is  ambiguous.  So  far 
as  fanaticism,  hardness,  pride,  bigotry  mingle  with  our  actions 
we  are  all  "bad."  But  Melanchthon  and  Calvin  in  rejoicing 
over  Servetus's  death  were  mistaken,  misled  men  and  not  "bad" 
men.  Jesuits  were  often  misleading  guides  and  have  a  quite 
undeserved  reputation  for  political  cleverness,  but  they  were 
not  "bad"  men,  and  their  morality  is  not  worse  and  not  better 
than  any  legal  morality,  whether  pharisaic  or  Puritan.  They 
blundered  most  shamefully.  Far  from  being  really  clever,  they 
have  been  bad  political  advisers  of  the  papacy.  They  lost  the 
North  American  continent  for  France  and  Catholicism.  They 
gave  Protestant  Germany  the  hegemony  of  Europe  by  forcing 
on  the  war  of  1870.  They  lost  France  to  the  papacy  by  stupid 
intrigues  of  no  meaning,  and  are  now  in  danger  of  destroying 
even  the  papacy  by  absurd  insistence  upon  lost  positions.     But 

*  Gury:  "Casus  conscientiae  I  de  peccatis,"  c.  17  :  2,  rv  181  :  2,  pp.  55  and  $6, 
quoted  by  Huber,  p,  119  op.  cit. 


,560  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

these  things  have  resulted  rather  from  their  single-minded 
devotion  to  the  lost  cause  of  the  Pope's  imperial  supremacy  than 
from  any  moral  crookedness.  Their  tragic  failure  is  only  one 
more  evidence  of  the  futility  of  attempting  to  force  the  living 
present  into  the  forms  and  modes  of  the  dead  past. 

While  this  is  all  true,  the  Jesuits  are  not  really  responsible 
for  the  foundations  upon  which  they  tried  to  build.  Casuistry 
begins  always  as  soon  as  authority,  final  and  definite,  is  pro- 
claimed. Hence  we  find  the  beginnings  of  it  even  in  St.  Augus- 
tine,^ and  we  have  already  seen  the  necessary  development  of 
it  in  the  books  of  penitence.  The  Jesuits  really  deserve  great 
credit  for  their  having  by  careful  systematic  elaboration  reduced 
the  whole  thing  to  an  absurdity.  They  found  it,  as  father  con- 
fessors of  really  good  religious  people,  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  tell  exactly  a  deadly  from  a  venial  sin.  But  only  authority 
makes  this  plain.  Now  in  the  balancing  of  authority  there  are 
four  main  theories:  i.  Probabilismus,  the  less  certain  may  be 
followed  if  a  grave  doctor  can  be  cited  on  that  side.  2.  Aequi 
probabilismus,  the  less  certain  opinion  may  be  followed  if  they 
seem  equally  well  supported  by  authority.  3.  Probabiliorismus, 
the  less  certain  opinion  may  only  be  followed  when  a  weight  of 
authority  makes  it  more  probable.  4.  Tutiorismus,  i.  e.,  the 
rigorous  following  of  the  best-supported  authority,  against  which 
no  probability  can  be  urged.  There  are  again  here  shades  of 
difference.^  It  must  be  remembered  that  these  discussions  are 
to  train  father  confessors. 

So  also  the  discussion  of  the  degree  and  motive  of  penitence 
became  for  the  Jesuit  confessors  a  burning  one.  Attritio 
formidolosa  or  attritio  servilis  was  repentance  from  fear  of 
punishment,  and  casuistry  had  to  decide  how  far  such  penitence 
had  validity.  It  was  agreed  that  the  highest  penitence  was 
only  contritio  perfecta,  which  meant  penitence  because  of  love 
to  God  only.' 

'  As  in  his  books,  "De  Mendacio"  and  "Contra  Mendacium  ad  Consentium." 
^  *  Cf.   Gury's   "Compendium   theologiae   Moralis,"   particularly   the  opening 
sections. 

'  Cf.  Dollinger  and  Rcusch,  "Moralstreitigkeiten,"  pp.  68-94,  edition  1889. 


POST-TRIDENTINE  CATHOLICISM  561 

The  Council  of  Trent  dealt  with  this  question,  accepting 
attritio  as  sufficient  if  accompanied  by  resolve  to  forego  the 
sin  and  to  do  penance,  but  added  that  the  contritio  was  higher/ 
Now  here  again  the  Jesuits  as  the  confessors  of  half  of  the 
Catholic  world  were  deeply  interested  and  again  out  of  practical 
grounds  took  the  more  flexible  rule.  This  was  not  because  they 
were  "laxer"  as  father  confessors  than  others  had  been,  but 
because  they  had  greater  need  of  elasticity  in  working  an  im- 
possible position.  They  were  becoming  the  confessors  of  the 
European  courts  and  princes,  and  these  had  never  been  noted 
for  any  strict  morality.  Exactly  the  same  reasons  that  controlled 
Luther  and  Melanchthon  in  their  unfortunate  advice  to  the 
elector  controlled  the  individual  Jesuits,  and  they  were  com- 
pelled to  defend  flexibility  to  make  the  system  of  authority  work. 
That  it  involved  theoretic  laxity  was  inevitable,  and  that  sooner 
or  later  the  evil  effects  of  this  would  appear  is  beyond  dispute. 

But  when  we  turn  to  Jansenism  all  that  is  found  is  a  stricter 
legalism,  an  unflinching  application  of  an  external  morality. 
It  was  a  Puritan,  though  individualistic  Puritan,  movement. 
The  men  and  women  of  Port  Royal  bowed  to  authority  and  to 
the  Pope,  and  although  persuaded  that  Augustine  taught  a 
doctrine  of  grace  very  different  from  the  semi-pelagianism  of 
historic  Roman  Catholicism,  they  were  as  much  afraid  of 
Protestantism  as  the  Jesuits  themselves.  One  must  have  deep 
personal  sympathy  with  the  sufferings  of  the  faithful  few  at 
Port  Royal,  and  the  intrigues  of  the  Jesuits^  are  exceedingly 
contemptible.  But  even  the  convinced  Protestant  must  carry 
away  the  impression  that,  as  a  matter  of  papal  imperial  policy, 
the  Jesuits  were  right  and  Port  Royal  was  wrong. 

Liguori  ^  is  often  confused  with  the  Jesuits,  and  his  rules  and 

'  Cf.  4  cap.  of  14th  Session,  1651.  and  the  discussion  of  it  in  Dollinger,  "Mor- 
alstreitigkeiten,"  p.  71. 

^  The  best  account  is  in  the  book  already  mentioned,  Joh.  Huber,  "Der 
Jesuiten  Orden,"  pp.  438-495.  He  was  of  the  school  of  Dollinger,  so  stands 
between  extreme  views  on  either  side. 

'  Alfonso  Maria  de  Liguori  (1696- 1787)  was  the  founder  of  the  Redemptorists, 
who  are  often  confused  with  the  Jesuits.     He  was  a  most  prolific  writer,  and  the 


562  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

his  main  interests  closely  coincide  with  those  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  He  began  as  a  probabilist  but  ended  as  an  aequi 
probabilist.  His  casuistry  is  open  to  all  the  objections  that  can 
be  urged  against  a  legal  formal  system  stretched  to  try  and  meet 
actual  life.  He  was  himself  forever  tormented  by  scruples  and 
the  fear  of  offending,  and  as  in  all  such  cases  tries  to  justify  all 
manner  of  really  immoral  ways  of  escape  from  the  letter  of 
law.  His  tricks  with  ^quivocatio  and  Restriclio  mentalis  are 
certainly  demoralizing.  Yet  here  again  they  are  the  outcome 
of  the  system,  and  it  is  hard  to  escape  Liguori's  conclusions 
starting  with  his  assumptions.  The  outcome  is  hideous,  it  al- 
ways must  be.  It  was  so  in  Christ's  time  and  always  will  be. 
It  is  the  bankruptcy  of  an  external  morality  on  the  basis  of  out- 
ward authority. 

The  Council  of  Trent  made  no  advances  in  systematic  ethics, 
but  simply  fixed  the  discipline.  The  papacy  has  always  been 
practical  and  political  in  its  aims  rather  than  theoretical  or 
systematic.  It  reformed  the  Catholic  system  and  made  it  at 
once  more  simple  and  more  highly  authoritative  and  centralized. 
The  young  Jesuit  movement  already  made  its  devotion  felt,  and 
the  new  religious  vigor  of  the  great  awakening  found  expression 
in  a  revived  Catholicism.  But  it  made  no  great  contribution  to 
the  systematizing  of  ethics.  It  indeed  regulated  the  discipline 
and  carefully  defined  indulgence  and  sought  to  guard  against 
abuses,  but  beyond  that  it  did  not  go. 

Thus  in  theory  and  in  its  teachings  the  ethics  of  Thomas 
Aquinas  are  the  authorized  statement  of  the  Roman  position. 


cult  of  Mary  was  his  special  message.  His  "Gloria  di  Maria"  ("Glories  of 
Mary,"  many  editions  and  translations)  and  his  "Moralia  Theologia"  are  still 
powerful  books  of  propaganda.  The  best  life  is  by  Carl  Dilgskron,  "Leben 
des  heiligen  Bischofs  und  Kirchenlehrers  Alfonsus  Maria  de  Liguori,"  2  vols., 
Regensburg,  1887.  There  are  many  Italian  editions  of  his  works  and  a  new 
French  edition  ("CEuvres  completes  du  S.  Alphonse  Marie  de  Liguori.  Tradui- 
tes  par  les  Peres  L.  Dujardin  et  Jules  Jacques,"  Tournai,  1855 ^.,'  nouv.  ddit., 
1895  jf.),  and  a  German  edition  in  42  vols.  ("Siimmtliche  Wcrke  von  Alphonsus 
Maria  von  Liguori,"  Regensburg,  1842-1847).  An  English  edition  by  R.  A. 
Cofi^,  of  which,  however,  only  six  volumes  appeared,  London,  1854-1868. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  563 

Nor  did  any  philosophic  system  up  to  the  time  of  Kant  seem  to 
make  any  impression  upon  the  revived  and  invigorated  Roman 
Catholic  imperialism. 

XI.      THE    ETHICS    OF    PHILOSOPHICAL   PROTESTANTISM    ON    THE 

CONTINENT 

The  controversy  between  Arminius  and  the  Calvinistic  party 
was  ethically  singularly  barren.  Although  in  fact  the  heart  of 
the  question  was  the  ethical  character  of  God  and  his  govern- 
ment, the  dispute  was  carried  on  on  scholastic  lines,  and  dealt 
with  the  metaphysics  and  exegetical  questions  involved,  without 
due  consideration  of  the  ethics.  So  that  the  protest  of  Arminius, 
like  that  of  Socinus,  with  whom  his  opponents  sought  to  identify 
him,  never  really  gave  ethics  the  help  that  discussion  along 
more  fruitful  lines  might  have  rendered.  But  one  man  came 
out  from  the  Arminian  ranks,  or  rather  from  the  atmosphere 
which  made  Arminius  possible,  who  did  much  to  give  ethics  an 
independent  place  in  human  thinking. 

Hugo  Grotius^  is  the  real  father  of  modern  international 
ethics.  But  the  basis  of  his  international  ethics  is  really  pagan 
and  not  Christian.  Not  that  he  was  not  himself  a  most  devout 
believer.     On  the  contrary  he,  like  Bacon,  still  attempted  the 

*  Grotius  (or  de  Groot),  Hugo  (1583-1645),  was  alike  scholar  and  statesman. 
He  was  condemned  by  Prince  Maurice  of  Orange  to  life-long  imprisonment,  but 
escaped  after  two  years,  and,  fleeing  to  Paris,  became  later  the  Swedish  ambassa- 
dor to  France.  Many  editions  of  his  works,  and  translations  of  his  great  work, 
"De  jure  belli  ac  pacis,"  libri  tres,  Paris,  1625;  "The  Illustrious  Hugo  Grotius 
of  the  Law  of  Warre  and  Peace;  with  Annotations,  III  Parts,  and  Memorials  of 
the  Author's  Life  and  Death,"  translated  by  Clement  Barksdale,  2  parts,  London, 
1654;  "On  the  Rights  of  War  and  Peace:  an  Abridged  Edition,"  translated  by 
W.  Whewell,"  1853;  "Drei  Bucher  iiber  das  Recht  des  Krieges  und  Friedens," 
in  Kirchmann's  "Philosphische  Bibliothek,"  vols.  XV  and  XVI,  Berlin,  1868  sq. 
This  and  his  "De  Veritate  Religionis  Christianse,"  Paris,  1627;  editio  novissima, 
1669,  many  English  translations  and  editions;  "Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
Literally  Translated  by  T.  Sedger,"  London,  2d  ed.,  1859,  form  our  chief 
source  for  the  ethics.  His  life  has  been  written  by  Charles  Butler  ("The  Life 
of  Hugo  Grotius;  with  .  .  .  Minutes  of  the  Civil,  Ecclesiastical  and  Literary 
History  of  the  Netherlands,"  London,  1826),  and  a  large  literature  concerning 
the  legal  aspects  of  his  work  exists. 


S64  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

impossible  task  of  separating  the  fields  of  knowledge,  and  ad- 
mitting the  relative  and  progressive  character  of  "secular" 
knowledge  while  still  retaining  the  "absolute"  character  of 
knowledge  that  has  been  "revealed." 

Thus  Grotius  has  a  threefold  standard  in  ethics.  There  is 
first  the  law  of  nature/  which  is  fixed  and  quite  unchangeable 
from  the  beginning  of  time/  and  then  following  Aristotle  there  is 
the  given  law/  and  then  besides  these  there  is  the  law  of  custom 
and  habit.^  God's  law  is  twofold.  There  is  a  general  law 
given  at  creation,  again  at  the  flood,  and  then  by  the  revelation 
of  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  also  a  special  law  given  only  to  the 
Jews  and  only  binding  upon  them.^  From  these  complicated 
premises  Grotius  strives  to  build  up  an  ethics  that  should  have 
international  sweep  and  validity.  But  in  point  of  fact  the 
foundation  has  to  be  laid  in  natural  law  (jus  naturale)  and  never 
rises  higher  than  the  old  Stoic  ethics  in  its  Roman  dress.  As  the 
student  reads  the  complicated  argument  of  Grotius,  wearisome 
in  a  degree  from  being  overburdened  by  quotation  after  quota- 
tion from  relevant  and  irrelevant  authors,  one  is  at  first  sur- 
prised at  the  place  and  influence  assigned  to  the  work.  It  never 
really  rises  higher  than  Roman  Stoicism  at  its  best,  and  is  often 
on  lower  planes,  as  in  the  defence  of  private  war.^  Then,  how- 
ever, there  is  forced  upon  us  the  historic  significance  of  such 
an  effort  at  a  time  when  the  old  "imperium,"  whether  ecclesias- 
tical or  military,  had  given  way,  and  some  basis  had  to  be  found 
for  the  existence  side  by  side  of  independent  national  units. 
If  ever  the  world  sees  a  great  federation  of  nations,  as  doubtless 
it  will,  men  will  look  back  upon  Grotius  as  the  historical  student 
who  first  tried  to  construct  an  ethics  for  such  a  federation. 

'  "Jus  belli  ac  pacis,"  Prol.  i. 

*  "Jus  belli  ac  pacis,"  lib.  I,  cap.  I,  X  :  1-7. 

^  "Juris  ita  accepti  optima  parlitio  est,  quie  apud  Aristotelem  exstat,  ut  fit 
aliud  jus  naturale,  aliud  voluntarium,  quod  illc  legitimum  vocat,  Icgis  vocabulo 
strictius  posito:  interdum  ct  t6  tv  iri^ei,  (sic)  constitutum,"  "Jus  belli  ac  pacis," 
lib.  I,  cap.  I,  IX  :  2.  *"Jus  belli  ac  pacis,"  Prol.  I. 

'  "Jus  belli  ac  pacis,"  lib.  I,  cap.  I,  XV  :  2,  and  XVII  :  1-8. 

•  "Jus  belli  ac  pacis,"  lib.  I,  cap.  Ill,  §  II. 


PHILOSOPHICAL   PROTESTANTISM  565 

There  are  ethical  sections  in  his  other  best-known  work,  "De 
Veritate,"  *  in  which  Grotius  attempts  to  define  the  relation  of 
natural  law  to  the  Gospel  and  to  revelation.  And  the  outcome 
of  his  discussion  is  a  real  separation  between  "reason"  and 
"revelation,"  and  what  Grotius  did  not  really  intend,  an  empha- 
sis upon  "reason"  which  makes  all  revelation  superfluous. 

The  failure  with  Grotius  as  with  all  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  century  men  up  to  Kant  is  the  unquestioned  accept- 
ance of  a  system  of  absolute  truth  on  the  basis  of  revelation,  and 
of  a  world  of  perception  apart  from  the  mind  perceiving.  For 
Grotius  the  senses  never  really  deceive  the  healthy  mind,^  but 
there  is  an  antinomy  between  "reason"  and  "revelation"  which 
can  only  be  solved  by  separating  their  spheres.  And  in  this 
separation  practically  everything  in  which  a  healthy  man  is 
interested  is  relegated  to  the  field  of  "reason,"  and  religion  is 
left  to  deal  with  questions  of  but  very  secondary  importance. 
That  such  a  rationalism  should  be  religiously  barren  was  no 
wonder,  and  not  even  the  exceedingly  religious  cosmogonies  of 
Descartes,  Spinoza,  or  Leibnitz  could  give  back  again  what  re- 
ligion thus  lost. 

The  assumption  by  Descartes^  of  a  universal  doubt,  and  then 
of  a  reconstruction  on  the  basis  of  the  assurance  of  personality 

•  Lib.  II,  §§  XII-XVII,  and  lib.  V,  §§  VI-XIV. 

^  "De  Jure  Belli  ac  Pads,"  Prol.  §  XXXIX. 

^Descartes  or  Des  Cartes,  Rene  (Renatus  Cartesius),  1596-1650.  Born  at 
La  Haye,  Touraine,  and  of  old  noble  family.  The  best  edition  of  his  works  is 
that  of  Victor  Cousin  ("CEuvres  .  .  .  publiees  par  Victor  Cousin,"  11  vols., 
Paris,  1824-1826),  and  the  Latin  edition  ("R.  Des  Cartes  Opera  philosophica, 
Editio  secunda  ab  Auctore  recognita,"  Amsterdam,  1650).  The  best  bibliog- 
raphy is  that  of  the  last  edition  of  Ueberweg-Heinze,  "  Grundriss  der  Geschichte 
der  Philosophic,"  theil  3,  §  XIII.  The  life  has  often  been  written',  but  one  of 
the  most  lively  and  sympathetic  summaries  is  that  of  Kuno  Fischer's  "Descartes' 
Leben,  Werke  und  Lehre  (Geschichte  der  neueren  Philosophic  Band  I),  Heidel- 
berg, 1897,  vierte  neubearbeitete  Auflage,"  pp.  149-272.  English  translation 
of  3d  ed.  by  J.  P.  Gordy,  London,  1887.  Kuno  Fischer  has  also  admirably 
translated  into  German  the  chief  philosophical  works,  "R.  Descartes'  Haupt- 
schriften  zur  Grundlegung  seiner  Philosophic.  Ins  Deutsche  iibertragen  und 
mit  einem  Vorwort  versehen,"  Mannheim  and  Darmstadt,  1863.  English  trans- 
lation by  J.  Veith  ("The  Method,  Meditations,  and  Selections  from  the  Principles 


566  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

of  all  life,  is  neither  a  real  nor  possible  position.  No  theoretical 
doubt  ever  really  more  than  temporarily  shakes  the  actual  basis 
of  our  conduct  or  judgments  of  conduct.  And  these  judgments 
are  not  the  result  either  of  the  rational  process  pure  and  simple, 
nor  of  a  process  of  revelation  apart  from  human  psychological 
process  and  moral  experience. 

Thus  Descartes'  analysis  of  the  foundation  for  ethical  advance 
is  a  mixture  of  authority  and  rationalism,*  but  his  treatment 
is  still  really  in  the  bonds  of  an  unpsychological  method.  Mathe- 
matical processes  have  still  something  magically  superior  to 
the  material  given  in  the  sense-perception,^  and  the  process  of 
introspection  gives  us  an  assurance  higher  than  that  gained  by 
observation,'  and  in  spite  of  Descartes'  suspicion  of  the  syllogistic 
reasoning  of  logic,^  and  his  rejection  of  it  in  the  province  of 
physical  science  for  theology  and  ethics  as  well  as  metaphysics, 
it  remains  in  essence  his  method.  So  that  even  his  science  never 
frees  itself  from  a  hampering  theological  metaphysics,^  and 
there  is  set  up  a  dualism  of  mind  and  body  which  is  really  fatal 
to  an  examination  of  either,^  and  this  because  a  knowledge  of 
the  soul  is  more  certain  than  any  knowledge  of  the  body.'  This 
knowledge  Descartes  would  gain  by  introspection  and  reflection. 

of  Descartes.  Translated  from  the  original  texts  .  .  .  ,"  Edinburgh  and  Lon- 
don, Blackwood,  iithed.,  1907),  as  well  as  by  others,  but  generally  only  of 
extracts  from  the  "Principles"  with  the  "Discourse"  and  the  "Meditations"  in 
full.  The  ethics  have  been  especially  treated  by  Max  Heinze  ("Die  Sittenlehre 
des  Descartes,"  Vortrag  (28  pp.),  Leipsic,  Hinrichs,  1872. 

'  "  La  premiere  etoit  d'ob^ir  aux  lois  et  aux  coutumes  de  mon  pays,  retenant 
constamment  la  religion  en  laquelle  Dieu  m'a  fait  la  grice  d'etre  instruit  dhs 
mon  enfance,"  etc.     "Discours  de  la  Methode,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  147 

(1824). 
'"  Discours  de  la  Methode,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  128  (1834). 

*  "Meditation  seconde,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  I,  pp.  246-262  (1824). 

*  "Discours  de  la  Methode,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  140. 

•"Et  ainsi  je  reconnois  tr^s  clairement  que  la  certitude  et  la  v^rit^  de  tout 
science  depend  de  la  seule  connoissance  du  vrai  Dieu,"  etc.,  "Meditation  cin- 
quieme,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  I,  p.  321  (1824). 

*"Les  principes  de  la  philosophie,  Premifere  partie,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol. 
II,  p.  67. 

*  "Les  principes  de  la  philosophie.  Premiere  partie,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  II, 
p.  69. 


\ 


PHILOSOPHICAL   PROTESTANTISM  567 

The  ethics  of  Descartes  revolve  about  the  question  of  the 
Highest  Good.*  This  divides  itself  into  two  great  divisions. 
God  is  of  course  the  absolute  Highest  Good,^'  but  there  is  a  realm 
less  than  God  in  which  man  seeks  his  "good,"  and  this  is  not 
that  of  the  material  things,  nor  of  intellect,  because  these  lie 
outside  our  immediate  control,  but  man  must  seek  his  highest 
well-being  in  the  will  to  virtue.^  And  this  will  is  free,  or  at  least 
may  be  free,  and  rule  over  the  sensuous  elements.  This  control 
of  the  passions  is  the  end  of  human  life,''  therefore  the  life  of 
virtue  is  not  in  becoming  passionless,  but  in  proper  control  of 
the  passions  and  their  right  direction,  so  that  we  long  for  the 
things  worth  while.^  These  things  Descartes  very  beautifully 
expounds  in  his  third  part  of  the  "Passions,"  separating  the 
noble  from  the  ignoble  with  great  beauty  and  insight. 

Descartes  would  have  the  ethical  man  seek  indeed  happiness, 
but  a  certain  kind  of  happiness,  namely,  peace  and  contentment, 
"vivere  beate,''  is  "to  have  a  spirit  perfectly  contented  and 
satisfied,"  '  and  to  do  this  knowledge  and  a  measure  of  intelli- 
gence is  necessary,  so  that  every  one  is  bound  to  cultivate  knowl- 
edge and  intelligence  to  the  extent  of  his  capacity.'  At  the  same 
time  the  seat  of  the  ethical  life  is  in  the  will  and  not  in  the 
intelligence,  so  that  often  when  we  stray  we  have  peace  in  remem- 
bering that  we  willed  to  do  the  good.  The  relation  between  the 
"good  will"  or  virtue  and  "peace"  Descartes  leaves  almost  as 
undecided  as  between  soul  and  body.  But  in  his  letter  to  the 
Queen  of  Sweden^  he  seems  to  assume  a  necessary  relationship. 

'  The  correspondence  must  be  largely  relied  upon,  but  besides  the  "Medita- 
tions" (rather  religious  and  metaphysical  than  ethical,  yet  containing  the  foun- 
dation of  his  ethics),  see  also,  "Les  Passions  de  I'Ame,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol. 

IV,  pp.  3-163. 

^  On  peut  consid^rer  la  bonte  de  chaque  chose  en  elle-meme,  sans  la  rapporter 
a  autrui,  auquel  sens  il  est  evident  que  c'est  Dieu  qui  est  le  souverain  bien,"  etc., 
Cousin's  edition,  vol.  X,  p.  60. 

3  "A  la  Reine  de  Suede,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  X,  p.  62. 

*  "Les  Passions  de  I'Ame,"  art.  CXLVIII,  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  IV,  p.  161. 

»  "Les  Passions  de  I'Ame,"  art.  CLX,  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  IV,  p.  171. 

•""Lettre  a  Mde.  Elisabeth,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  IX,  p.  211. 

^  "Lettre  ^  A.  M,"  Cousin's  edition,  vol.  VI,  p.  310.  *  Op.  cit. 


S68  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

At  bottom  the  ethics  of  Descartes  are  little  more  than  Roman 
Stoicism,  but  with  vagueness  and  irresolution  introduced  by 
traces  of  Christian  feeling. 

It  remained,  therefore,  for  Spinoza^  to  work  out  the  Cartesian 
dualism  to  a  monistic  system  on  the  basis  of  the  will.  Already 
in  Aristotle  there  is  raised  the  problem  of  how  the  will  is  related 
in  ethics  to  the  intellect,  and  the  answer  is  not  clear,  but  as  the 
will  must  be  informed  the  intellect,  as  in  all  Greek  ethics,  has  the 
place  of  prominence.  This  intellectualism  is  not  overcome  in 
Descartes,  although  distinctly  disavowed,  and  yet  the  unresolved 
dualism  which  haunted  the  Cartesian  system  is  as  troublesome 
in  ethics  as  it  is  in  the  metaphysics.     Malebranche^  had  pre- 

'  Spinoza  (Despinoza,  De  Spinoza),  Baruch  (or  Benedict)  de  (1632-1677). 
Bibliography  in  full  in  Ueberweg-Heinze,  "  Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  Philoso- 
phic, Dritter  Theil  §§  16  and  17,"  and  in  Antonius  van  der  Linde's  "Benedictus 
Spinoza,  Bibliografie,"  Gravenhage,  187 1  (in  Dutch),  and  "Zur  Litteratur  des 
Spinozismus  in  Zeitschrift  fiir  Philosophic,"  vol.  XLV,  1864,  pp.  301-305.  The 
best  edition  by  van  Vloten  and  Land  ("Benedicti  de  Spinoza  Opera  quotquot 
repcrta  sunt.  Recognoverunt  J.  van  Vloten  et  J.  P.  N.  Land.  Editio  altera," 
3  vols.,  La  Hague,  1895).  The  "Ethica"  appears  as  a  separate  volume  taken 
from  this  edition  of  1895.  Excellent  introduction  to  Spinoza  is  Kuno  Fischer's 
"Spinozas  Leben,  Werke  und  Lehre,"  vol.  II  of  his  "Geschichte  der  neuern 
Philosphie"),  Filnfte  Auflage,  Heidelberg,  1909.  His  life  is  beautifully  inter- 
woven into  a  novel  by  Berthol  Auerbach  in  his  "Spinoza,  ein  Denkerleben,"  Neu 
bearbeitet,  Mannheim,  1854  (in  Gesammelte  Schriften,  vols.  X,  XI,  Stuttgart, 
Cotta,  1863,  1864).  The  early  life  in  the  tongue  of  the  Netherlands  by  Jean 
Coler  (Johann  Kohler),  Lutheran  pastor  at  Amsterdam,  is  known  in  the  French 
translation,  "La  Vie  de  Spinosa"  ("The  life  of  Benedict  de  Spinoza  .  .  . 
Drawn  out  of  French,"  p.  92,  London,  1706),  but  must  be  corrected  from  the 
studies  of  later  students,  especially  van  Vloten's.  Very  sympathetic,  yet  critical, 
is  Kuno  Fischer's  sketch,  pp.  1 21-195,  i"  the  volume  already  referred  to. 

^  Malebranche,  Nicolas  (1638-1715),  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Oratoria  in 
Paris,  wrote,  besides  his  famous  "De  la  Recherche  de  la  Veritd;  ou  Ton  traitte  de 
la  nature  de  I'Esprit  de  I'Homme,  et  de  I'usage  qu'il  en  doit  faire  pour  6viter 
I'erreur  dans  Ics  Sciences"  (Paris,  1674-1678),  which  estranged  him  alike  from 
the  Jesuits  and  the  'Jansenists,  a  treatise  on  morality,  "Traits  dc  Morale,  par 
I'autcur  de  la  Recherche  de  la  v^rite"  (2  parts,  Rotterdam,  1684);  both  of  these 
appeared  anonymously.  The  latter  is  found  in  the  first  volume  (p.  400)  in 
"O^uvres  completes  de  Malcbranche.  Ouvrage  public  par  MM.  de  Genoude 
et  Lourdoneix,"  2  vols.,  Paris,  1837.  Here  he  proclaims  man's  unity  with  the 
reason  of  God,  chap,  I  :  1.  This  final  divine  substance  is  God,  and  God  is 
reason   (raisf)n).     The  love  of  order  is  the  fundamental   virtue,  chap.   II  :  i. 


PHILOSOPHICAL   PROTESTANTISM  569 

pared  the  way  for  a  pantheistic  monotheism  on  the  basis  of  Des- 
cartes' metaphysics,  and  now  Spinoza  deliberately  sought  a 
resolution  of  the  dualism  upon  the  basis  of  intellectual  love, 
whose  seat  is  really  in  the  will. 

The  one  substance  is  God,  who  is,  however,  not  personal  and 
is  under  no  constraint,  but  acts  according  to  his  own  being.  He 
is  not  the  supreme  cause  of  the  universe,  if  by  that  is  meant  a 
separation  between  cause  and  effect,  but  is  the  immanent  reason 
for  all  being  existing  as  it  is/  God  is  the  cosmical  substance, 
and  the  cosmos  is  God.  Everything,  therefore,  acts  in  strict 
conformity  to  its  own  nature.^  Substance  has  infinite  variety 
in  its  attributes,  but  human  intellect  knows  God  under  two 
aspects,  that  of  thought  and  extension.  These  are  as  inde- 
pendent of  each  other  as  in  Descartes'  system,  but  find  their 
union  in  God.  That  is  to  say,  Spinoza  is  no  materialist  deriving 
thought  from  matter,  nor  is  he  an  idealist  like  Malebranche  or 
Berkeley  in  that  he  derives  material  from  thought.  So  far 
as  attributes  have  independent  existence,  both  extension  and 
thought  represent  the  inner  being  of  God,  but  they  are  not 
opposed  to  each  other.  We  are  only  interested  in  Spinoza's 
elaborate  metaphysics  so  far  as  they  affect  our  problem,  and  it 
must  be  confessed  that  within  the  confines  of  Spinoza's  panthe- 
ism there  is  no  room  for  a  really  Christian  ethics.  All  the 
relations  under  which  Jesus  thought  of  man  and  God  are  made 
impossible  symbols  in  which  to  interpret  Spinoza's  world. 

It  has  two  divisions,  one  of  union  and  the  other  of  benevolence,  chap.  Ill  :  8, 
and  this  love  of  order  or  harmony  is  the  basis  for  our  unity  with  God  in  free  and 
loving  co-operation,  chap.  IV  :  10-19.  And  yet  this  freedom  in  any  real  sense 
is  a  gift  of  God's  grace,  chap.  VII  :  1-3,  and  the  means  of  grace  are  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  sacraments  of  the  church,  chap.  VIII  :  1-4,  and  motives  to  right-doing 
are  the  fear  of  hell  and  the  desire  for  happiness,  chap.  VIII  :  13-16,  and  hence 
he  develops  a  somewhat  mystical  version  of  Augustine's  ethics  with  intrusions 
from  Descartes  in  exceedingly  beautiful  French,  but  with  skilful  evasion  of  the 
principal  problems  and  much  real  confusion  of  the  issues. 

*  "Deus  est  omnium  rerum  causa  immanent,  non  vero  transiens.  Eth.  I  : 
Prop.  18  and  in  the  demonstration  Spinoza  points  out,  "Deinde  extra  Deum 
nulla  potest  dari  substantia,  hoc  est  res  quas  extra  Deum  in  se  fit." 

^  "  Ethica  pars,"  IV,  prop.  59. 


570  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  modes  under  which  we  know  matter  are  motion  and  rest, 
the  modes  of  thought  are  intellect  and  will.  These  are  infinite 
like  the  attributes  and  have  neither  beginning  nor  end.  Spinoza 
is  bound  up  with  a  determinism  that  carried  over  into  the  sphere 
of  conduct  is  fatalism;  from  this  Spinoza  vainly  tries  to  escape 
by  intellectualism  of  a  thorough-going  character.*  Man  can 
only  be  free  through  thought.  Any  affection  {affectus)  which  is 
a  passion  ceases  to  be  a  passion  so  soon  as  we  have  a  clear  and 
distinct  idea  of  it.^  To  understand  the  world  is  to  mark  its 
necessary  inevitable  character  and  to  cease  to  be  weak  and  fear- 
ful and  indeed  to  realize  that  there  is  nothing  either  good  or 
bad,  but  that  things  simply  are.  Religion  is  this  sense  of  com- 
plete acquiescence  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  it  is  hard  to  see 
how  it  differs  much  from  the  Stoic  resignation  of  later  Roman 
days.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  see  why  it  should  be  a  joyful  resignation. 
The  certainty  that  substance  is  infinite  and  imperishable  will 
fill  us  with  joy  or  sorrow  according  to  our  experience  of  its 
painful  or  pleasurable  character.  We  may  as  philosophers  sur- 
render gracefully  to  the  inevitable  because  it  is  "of  the  nature  of 
things,"  but  our  opinion  "of  the  nature  of  things"  may  then 
be  either  that  of  Leibnitz  or  Schopenhauer,  and  there  can  be  no 
room  in  Spinoza's  ethics  for  a  duty  to  trust  or  believe,  for  the 
essence  of  his  morality  is  to  see  things  as  they  are.  We  may 
rejoice  that  the  despised,  poor,  fear-haunted  Jewish  outcast 
rose  to  such  heights  of  peace  and  faith,  but  one  distrusts  his 
analysis  of  the  groundwork  of  that  philosophic  calm  and  gentle, 
loving,  simple  life  as  given  in  the  Pars  Quinta  of  his  ethics. 

Moreover,  throughout  the  metaphysics  and  ethics  of  Spinoza 
runs  the  great  fundamental  fallacy  that  in  the  method  of  mathe- 
matics the  human  mind  has  access  to  a  type  of  certainty  more 
stable  than  that  based  upon  phenomenal  experience. 

Upon  this  assumption  there  was  built  up  a  new  philosophical 
scholasticism,  which  reached  its  climax  in  the  school  philosophy 
that  dominated  the  thinking  world  up  to  Kant's  critical  examina- 

'  "Elhica,"  pars  IV,  de  servitutc  humana,  and  pars  V,  de  libertatc  humana. 
*  "Ethica,"  V,  prop.  3,  and  demonstration. 


PHILOSOPHICAL   PROTESTANTISM  571 

tion  of  it.  This  school  philosophy  was  under  the  influence  of 
Leibnitz^  and  Christian  Wolff.  Leibnitz  was  more  interested  in 
metaphysics  and  the  metaphysical  assumptions  that  precede 
ethics  than  in  ethics  itself.  But  Christian  Wolff  formulated  the 
ethics  on  the  basis  of  Leibnitz's  metaphysics  and  gave  to  rational- 
ist Protestantism  an  almost  final  ethical  statement.  Wol]j  ^  and 
Leibnitz  felt  the  influence  of  the  tremendous  services  that 
mathematics  was  rendering  to  invention.  It  was  not  Bacon's 
method,  but  the  application  of  mathematics  as  a  conceptual 
short-hand  to  physics  and  to  chemistry,  enabling  invention  to 

'Leibniz  (or  Leibnitz),  Gottfried  Wilhelm  von  (1646-1716),  was  born  in 
Leipsic,  where  he  also  began  his  studies.  For  full  details  of  a  most  useful  and 
interesting  life,  see  Guhrauer's  "Life"  ("Gottfried  Wilhelm,  Freiherr  von 
Leibnitz,  Eine  Biographic  von  Gottschalk  Eduard  Guhrauer,  2  Theile,  Breslau, 
1842,  mit  Nachtrage,  1846").  He  did  much  for  higher  education  by  the  found- 
ing and  conducting  of  the  Berlin  Academy,  whose  first  president  ke  was.  His 
correspondence  is  preserved  in  the  library  at  Hanover,  not  all  of  which  has 
been  published.  The  philosophical  works  are  edited  by  Paul  Janet,  2d  ed., 
Paris,  1900,  and  there  is  an  older  edition  ("  G.  G.  Leibnittii  opera  philosophica 
quae  exstant  Latina  Gallica  Germanica  omnia.  Editio  recognovit  e  temporum 
rationibus  disposita,  pluribus  ineditis  auxit,  introductione  critica  atque  indicibus 
instruxit  J.  E.  Erdmann  cum  Leibnitii  effigie,"  2  vols.,  Berlin,  1839,  1840). 
The  philosophical  works  have  been  translated  by  G.  M.  Duncan,  New  Haven, 
1890.  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company  in  Chicago  has  published  his 
important  works,  in  1902  ("Discourse  on  Metaphysics,  Correspondence  with 
Arnaud,  and  Monadology,"  with  an  introduction  by  Paul  Janet,  Member  of  the 
French  Institute,  translated  from  the  original  by  George  R.  Montgomery). 
Very  full  bibliography  in  Ueberweg-Heinze :  "Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der 
Philosophie,"  Dritter  Theil,  §  XXIII,  and  in  Alfred  Weber's  "  History  of 
Philosophy,"  translated  from  the  French  by  Frank  Thilly,  New  York,  Scribner, 
1903;  also  in  Kuno  Fischer's  third  volume  of  his  "Geschichte  der  neueren 
Philosophie,"  "Gottfreid  Wilhelm  Leibniz,  Leben,  Werke  und  Lehre,"  4th 
ed.,  Heidelberg,  1902. 

*  Wolff  (Wolf),  Christian,  Freiherr  von  (1679-1754),  born  in  Halle  as  the 
son  of  an  artisan.  His  works  are  most  numerous,  and  his  philosophy  appears 
both  in  his  exceedingly  discursive  Latin  and  in  admirable  German  text-books 
(various  editions,  see  Ueberweg-Heinze:  "  Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  Philoso- 
phie," Dritter  Theil,  §  XXVI).  The  student  of  ethics  will  find  nearly  all  he 
needs  in  the  "Ethica,"  five  parts.  The  edition  cited  is  "Philosophia  moralis, 
sive  Ethica,  methodo  scientifica  pertractata,"  etc.,  Halae  Magdeburgicas,  1750- 
1 753.  But  a  study  of  his  German  works  is  a  good  introduction  to  the  terminology 
of  Kant,  who  never  shook  off  entirely  the  influence  of  Wolff  upon  his  ethical 
thought. 


572  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

overcome  the  limitations  of  human  senses,  and  extending  almost 
indefinitely  the  potential  reach  of  human  observation  that 
marks  the  era  from  Descartes  to  Kant.  Both  Leibnitz  and 
WollT  were  distinguished  mathematicians,  and  the  philosophy  of 
the  period  may  almost  be  called  the  period  of  almost  pathetic 
faith  in  mathematics  as  the  key  to  the  absolute. 
/  On  the  field  of  ethics  Wolff  is,  however,  as  scholastic  as 
'Thomas  Aquinas,  only  "reason"  gives  the  content  as  well  as 
its  analysis.  And  by  reason  is  meant  the  discursive  analysis 
of  the  conceptional  machinery.  The  quiet  assumption  made  by 
Descartes,  Leibnitz,  and  Wolff,  as  well  as  by  the  English  deists, 
was  that  the  traditional  content  of  the  religious-ethical  life 
could  all  be  taken  somehow  out  of  the  discoursive  reason  by 
rational  process.  And  however  indefinite  its  limits,  this  content 
is  for  them  still  a  closed  system  as  much  as  the  closed  systems 
which  Biblical  Protestantism  thought  were  given  in  the  Script- 
ures and  Roman  Catholicism  in  the  traditions  of  the  church. 

Wolff  in  the  prolegomena  to  his  ethics  claims  for  philosophy, 
rightly  handled,  an  absolute  certainty.*  The  end  of  ethics  is 
man's  happiness,^  and  he  foresaw  the  reach  and  scope  of  the 
future  science.^  But  he  only  takes  the  theory  of  knowledge  of 
Leibnitz  and  rationalizes  the  traditional  ethical-religious  content, 
and  that  in  extremely  wordy  manner,  though  with  great  clearness 
and  learning,  and  with  a  useful  widening  of  the  German  termi- 
nology.* 

This  brings  us  to  the  close  of  our  study  of  systematic  ethics 
within  organized  Christianity.  From  the  Reformation  on  the 
stream  widens.     Authority  is  shifting.     The  ecclesiastical  im- 

'"Ita  in  philosophia  morali  quoque  demonstranda  sunt  omnia,  ut  certam 
habeamus,  praxin,"  Proleg.  to  "  Ethica,"  p.  3,  edition  1750. 

'  Proleg.  to  "  Ethica,"  p.  5,  edition  1750. 

^  He  says  in  the  Prolegomena  that  it  presupposes  ontology,  psychology 
(empirical),  natural  theology,  practical  philosophy,  universal  and  the  law  of 
nature  and  of  nations,  and  even  cosmology. 

*  Students  of  Kant  in  the  English-speaking  countries  would  do  well  to  study 
some  of  Wolff's  German  works  as  a  preparation  for  the  understanding  of  Kant's 
complicated  terminology. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  PROTESTANTISM  573 

perialism  built  up  so  carefully  on  dogmatic  unity  has  given  way. 
Biblical  Protestantism  has  utterly  failed  to  find  in  the  author- 
ity of  so  wonderfully  diverse  a  literature  as  the  Scriptures  a 
sufficient  basis  for  re-establishing  intellectual  unity.  National- 
ism and  individualism  swept  away  the  weak  barriers  Protestant 
ecclesiasticism  sought  hurriedly  to  erect.  The  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  sought  in  "reason"  a  sufficient  apology  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  traditional  religious-ethical  life.  The 
services  that  mathematics  had  rendered  the  cause  of  human 
progress  made  it  the  natural  ally  to  which  men  turned.  Two 
names  are  linked  in  our  history  as  the  destroyers  of  this  false 
hope.  Hume  and  Kant  turned  men's  gaze  in  upon  the  nature  of 
the  whole  conceptual  machinery  and  compelled  Protestantism 
to  reckon  at  last  with  the  limits  of  the  human  mind.  From  that 
hour  the  struggle  for  an  absolute  knowledge  in  theology  as  in 
ethics  has  been  a  losing  battle. 

At  that  hour,  however,  ethics  began  to  really  come  to  her  own. 
Not  now  as  an  absolute  content  given  on  authority  and  within 
the  limits  of  a  closed  system  of  human  duty,  but  as  a  science  of 
human  conduct  working  like  any  other  science  on  the  material 
given  in  human  experience  and  limited  like  all  science  by  the 
capacity  of  the  human  mind.  As  physics  is  the  study  of  the  laws 
of  force  and  matter,  that  we  may  adjust  our  life  to  our  surround- 
ings, and  by  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  force  and  matter  may 
master  our  surroundings,  so  the  science  of  ethics  is  the  study  of 
the  laws  of  human  life  and  conduct  that  we  may  adjust  our  lives 
to  our  changing  surroundings  and  become  masters  of  those  sur- 
roundings. This  involves  the  creation  and  exploitation  of  ever 
new  ethical  ideals.  The  false  assurance  of  an  absolute  in  ethics 
has  been  a  hinderance  to  the  formation  of  new  ideals.  They  have 
had  to  shelter  themselves  almost  sneakingly  under  the  cover  of 
misinterpretations  of  the  past.  Thus  almost  every  battle  against 
slavery,  feudalism,  private  war,  the  duel,  persecution  for  faith's 
sake,  for  freedom  and  toleration  has  been  waged  in  the  face  of 
an  absolute  ethics  that  claimed  a  completed  and  divinely  given 
content  sanctioned  by  a  revealed  authority. 


574  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  new  Protestantism  from  Hume  and  Kant  placed  at  last 
faith  in  the  room  and  stead  of  authority,  and  thus  came  back 
again  to  the  divine  ethical  autonomy  of  Jesus,  who  promised  a 
Holy  Spirit  guiding  men  step  by  step  into  all  truth,  but  who 
himself  felt  that  the  only  real  basis  was  the  experience  of  the 
loving  individual  heart  working  on  and  with  the  experience  of  all 
the  ages.  All  authoritative  absolutism,  whether  ecclesiastical 
or  Scriptural  or  rationalist,  has  gone.  Even  those  who  think 
they  still  maintain  it  flee  daily  to  the  modern  workshop  and  use 
the  tools  furnished  by  the  modern  study.  In  law  and  ethics,  in 
theology  and  philosophy,  the  ghosts  of  the  absolute  still  haunt  us, 
but  they  are  shadowy  with  the  twilight  of  a  rising  day.  And 
as  that  day  breaks  we  enter  with  joy  upon  the  study  of  the  past. 
It  is,  indeed,  no  longer  a  storehouse  of  infallible  revelations,  but 
it  is  a  history  of  a  steadily  unfolding  revelation,  of  God  to  man, 
and  of  man  to  humanity.  Augustine,  Bernhard  of  Clairvaux, 
Francis  of  Assisi,  Luther,  Calvin,  and  Tyndal  become  voices 
of  God  to  us  speaking,  not  indeed  in  infallible  tones  as  Paul 
and  Aristotle  were  thought  by  the  schoolmen  to  speak,  but  all 
the  more  clearly  and  wonderfully  because  they  speak  as  divinely 
illumined  men  to  men  seeking  divine  guidance. 

The  history  of  ethics  is  not  more  and  not  less  a  weary  struggle 
with  human  limitations  than  are  the  histories  of  astronomy  and 
chemistry.  They,  too,  had  to  shake  off  the  chilling  hands  of  an 
authoritative  past,  that  in  the  very  sense  of  their  helplessness 
they  might  gain  strength. 

On  no  field  of  human  activity  is  the  realization  of  the  limited 
and  relative  character  of  all  our  knowledge  at  first  more  painful 
and  more  depressing  than  upon  the  field  of  ethics.  And  yet  a 
moment's  thought  should  show  us  human  life  struggling  at  every 
moment  with  just  that  half-darkness.  No  matter  how  absolute 
and  final  the  commandment.  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder!  may  at 
first  appear,  the  moment  we  ask,  what  is  murder?  all  the 
doubt  and  uncertainty  of  a  thousand  differing  voices  besets  us. 
Is  capital  punishment  "  murder  "  ?  Was  Servetus  "  murdered  "  ? 
Was  the  beheading  of  King  Charles  "  murder  "  ?    Was  Hamilton 


PHILOSOPHICAL    PROTESTANTISM  575 

"  murdered  "  by  Burr  ?  Is  modern  warfare  wholesale  "  murder  "  ? 
What  is  the  good  of  an  "absolute"  authority  that  cannot  answer 
these  most  pressing  questions?  No  two  churches,  no  two 
councils,  no  two  ecclesiastical  courts,  no  two  popes  would 
probably  answer  all  these  questions  alike.  What,  then,  is  the 
good  of  an  "absolute"  authority  that  leaves  a  poor  erring  soul 
to  take  his  choice  between  answers,  one  of  which  must  be  wrong, 
and  with  only  the  individual  experience  to  guide  him  ? 

Christian  faith  replies  that  the  process  is  more  than  the  im- 
mediate product.  Our  mistakes  and  wanderings  are  our  train- 
ing for  communion  and  fellowship  with  a  Father  of  free  as  well 
as  loving  children.  Only  the  truth  can  make  us  free,  and  that 
truth,  in  ethics  as  in  all  other  sciences,  can  only  be  won  by  hard 
work  on  the  materials  of  human  experience.  In  that  struggle 
for  truth  Christian  faith  gives  us  assurance  that  in  spite  of  all 
mistakes,  nay,  because  of  them  and  through  them  we  may  yet 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God's  loving  fulfilled  purpose.  In  this 
spirit  we  have  tried  to  faithfully  and  as  objectively  as  possible 
follow  the  struggles  and  splendid  victories  of  God's  army  of 
chosen  spiritual  and  ethical  leaders.  If  our  judgments  have 
often  been  one-sided  and  wrong,  as  they  like  enough  have  been, 
it  has  been  through  no  lack  of  respect  for  those  who  have  done 
such  yeoman's  service  in  the  discovery  of  truth.  And  even  when 
the  emphasis  has  often  been,  perhaps,  rather  on  the  failings  than 
the  successes,  it  has  only  been  so  because  it  is  so  largely  from  the 
failures  of  great  men  that  we  lesser  ones  learn  to  steer  our 
smaller  way  aright. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  MERGING  OF  CHURCHLY  WITH  PHILOSOPH- 
ICAL  ETHICS— A  SUMMARY 

Note  of  Introduction. — I.  Kant  and  Post-Kantian  Thought;  Fichte; 
Schelling;  Hegel;  Schleiermacher — II.  Kant  and  Empiricism; 
Fechner;  Lotze;  Wundt — III.  Rationalism  in  France;  Voltaire 
Rousseau;  The  Encyclopaedists;  Cousin;  Comte — IV.  The  Eng- 
lish Reaction  upon  Hume;  Price;  Reid  and  Uncritical  Intuitional- 
ism; Coleridge;  Green — V.  English  UtiHtarianism;  Bentham;  Mills; 
Darwin;    Spencer. 

INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

This  chapter  can  only  be  a  hasty  summary  of  the  history  of 
ethics  from  Hume  and  Kant  to  the  present  time,  for  the  history 
of  ethics  within  Protestant  organized  Christianity  so  merges 
with  philosophic  ethics  that  there  is  no  distinguishing  line.  It  is 
imi)ossible  to  write  a  history  of  Protestant  ethics  and  omit 
Bentham  and  Herbert  Spencer,  but  it  is  equally  impossible  to 
regard  them  as  constituent  elements  of  organized  Christianity. 
Protestantism,  in  its  denial  of  the  ever-present  authority  of  an 
ecclesiasticism  to  determine  thought  and  conduct,  failed  happily 
to  really  establish  any  past  authority  as  final  in  ethics.  It 
would  have  been  fatal  to  moral  progress  if  it  had  succeeded  in 
doing  so.  The  faith  of  Christianity  in  all  ages  has  been  that  a 
Holy  Spirit  is  guiding  us  into  all  truth.  Moreover,  in  Protestant- 
ism the  distinction  between  the  religious  and  the  secular  has 
broken  down.  It  is  a  false  antithesis.  Ethical  advance  is 
always  religious  in  the  highest  sense,  and  it  is  not  in  ecclesiastical 
Christianity  alone  that  ethical  advance  has  had  its  rise.  In  a 
really  Protestant  ethics  dogmatism  has  no  proper  place.  The 
science  of  Christian  ethics  is,  like  all  other  sciences,  a  science  of 
experience  with  its  advancing  organization  of  thought.     The 

576 


CHURCHLY  AND   PHILOSOPHICAL   ETHICS  577 

destruction  of  dogmatic  ethics  on  the  basis  of  authority  was 
complete  with  the  work  of  Immanuel  Kant,^  whose  services  on 
the  ethical  field  are  largely  the  examination  and  rejection  of  the 
last  traces  of  dogmatic  rationalism.  The  critical  rationalism 
which  he  sought  to  substitute  in  ethics  must,  however,  be 
seriously  challenged.  The  weakest  point  of  Kant's  philosophy 
is  his  formal  attempt  at  ethical  reconstruction. 

I.  Kantianism  is  the  reaction  upon  the  dogmatism  of  such 
as  Wolff  and  an  attempt  to  again  assert  faith  in  its  proper 
sphere.  Kant  himself  was  roused,  as  he  explains,  by  the 
necessity  laid  upon  him  of  meeting  the  doubts  and  the  negations 
of  Hume;  he  entered  upon  his  critique  of  pure  reason  in  order 
to  get  a  basis  for  faith.  His  style  is  overladen  by  the  terminol- 
ogy of  dogmatic  rationalism;  his  schemes  of  classification  are 
artificial  and  by  their  elaboration  defeat  his  own  end.  He  never 
frees  himself  completely  from  the  superstition  that  mathematical 
conceptualism  has  something  superhuman  in  it  and  can  be 
divorced  from  sense-perception.  The  influence  at  this  point  of 
Descartes,  Leibnitz,  and  Spinoza,  not  to  speak  of  Plato,  is 
apparent.  Moreover,  some  of  his  most  fruitful  conceptions  are 
either  not  worked  out  at  all,  or  they  are  implicitly  contradicted 
by  the  formal  outcome.  At  the  same  time  he  is  the  founder  of 
the  new  Protestantism  which  looks  out  upon  a  world  of  science 
with  a  faith  large  enough  to  trust  scientific  analysis  as  by  divine 

*  Immanuel  Kant,  born  April  22,  1724,  died  February  12,  1804.  His  whole 
life  was  spent  in  Konigsberg.  The  best  life  is  still  that  by  Schubert,  F.  W.,  in 
Schubert  and  Rosenkranz's  edition  of  his  works,  although  corrections  in  details 
are  being  constantly  made,  as  in  Arnoldt's  (E.)  "Excursen  zur  Kantforschung," 
1894.  The  completest  English  life  is  that  of  Stuckenberg,  J.  H.  W.:  "The  Life 
of  Immanuel  Kant,"  London,  1882.  The  edition  of  his  works  undertaken  by  the 
Berlin  Academy  of  Science  is  not  yet  finished.  The  ethical  works  are  trans- 
lated (unequally)  by  Abbott,  Thomas  Kingsmill,  the  5th  ed.  in  1898.  Max 
Miiller  has  translated  the  "Critique  of  Pure  Reason."  An  excellent  popular 
introduction  to  Kant  is  Paulsen,  Friederich:  "Immanuel  Kant,  His  Life  and 
Doctrine,"  admirably  translated  by  Creighton  and  Lefevre  (1902),  who  have 
added  the  English  works  of  chief  importance  to  the  bibliography.  Schopen- 
hauer's criticisms  upon  Kant  are  among  the  best  in  the  literature,  but  the  system 
of  Schopenhauer  forbids  any  serious  development  of  his  own  ethical  thought 
as  a  proper  substitute. 


57^  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

right  in  its  own  sphere,  and  at  the  same  time  to  demand  the 
recognition  of  a  world  of  supersensuous  values  which  scientific 
analysis  can  neither  give  nor  take  away. 

The  main  interest  for  the  student  of  ethics  in  the  "Critique  of 
Pure  Reason"  is  its  demonstration  of  the  possibility  of  a  concept 
of  freedom  not  found  in  the  phenomenal  world.  This  freedom 
is  the  moral  spontaneity  needed  for  the  world  of  moral  activity. 
This  freedom  which  analysis  of  our  world  of  knowledge  shows 
is  possible,  the  ethical  man  asserts  as  a  first  necessity  of  his 
rationality.  The  moral  man  asserts  as  a  postulate  of  his  moral 
will,  God,  freedom,  and  immortality.^  He  lives  in  a  world  that 
belongs  essentially  to  supersensuous  reality,  as  well  as  in  a 
world  of  phenomenal  appearances  held  together  in  the  category 
of  causality.  The  basis,  therefore,  of  his  moral  world  is  intuition,  yV^ 
but  it  is  a  critical  intuitionalism  made  necessary  by  a  metaphys- 
ical examination  of  the  world  of  experience.^  Only  that  con- 
duct is  really  moral  which  is  dictated  by  respect  for  the  categor- 
ical imperative  of  the  law  within  each  rational  creature.  All 
conduct  that  has  pleasure  or  happiness  as  its  motive  may  be 
legal  and  appropriate,  but  it  is  not  moral.^  The  end  of  moral 
conduct  is  perfection,  and  faith  in  its  attainment  makes  the 
postulate  of  immortality  a  necessity.  God  is  needed  to  unite 
worthiness  and  happiness,  which  cannot  be  identified  in  the 
world  of  our  experience  as  the  Epicureans  and  Stoics  would  from 
different  stand-points  do.'*  The  characteristic  of  this  moral  law 
must  be  its  universality.  Hence  Kant  gives  as  a  rule  for  conduct 
the  possibility  of  willing  that  that  conduct  should  be  a  universal 
law.^    It  is  at  this  point  that  Kant's  greatest  service  to  ethics 

'  "Kritik  der  praktischen  Vernunft  (v.  Kirchmann's  edition,  vol.  II,  pp.  38  jf. 
and  146-158),  II  :  2;  V,  I,  §  8;  IV  and  II  :  2;  III. 

^Carried  on  in  "Kritik  der  reinen  Vernunft,"  and  in  "Grundlegung  zur 
Metaphysik  der  Sitten,"  v.  Kirchmann's  edition,  vols.  I  and  III. 

'"Kritik  der  reinen  praktischen  Vernunft,"  1:3,  v.  Kirchmann's  edition, 
vol.  II,  pp.  86-107. 

*  "Grundlegung  zur  Metaphysik  der  Sitten,"  v.  Kirchmann's  edition,  vol.  Ill, 

PP-  67-73- 

*"Der  Analytik  der  praktischen  Vernunft  II,"  v.  Kirchmann's  edition,  vol. 
II,  pp.  83-84. 


CHURCHLY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  579 

ends.  His  destructive  criticism  of  dogmatic  rationalism  by 
revealing  the  complex  character  of  "ratio,"  and  his  forceful 
attacks  upon  all  types  of  eudaemonism  and  hedonism  that  claim 
to  exhaust  the  content  of  our  moral  reactions,  stand  to  this  day. 
At  the  same  time  Kant  is  not  true  in  his  ethics  to  the  analogy 
he  sets  up  between  the  categories  of  the  pure  reason  and  those  I 
of  the  practical  reason.  He  is  still  haunted  by  the  ghost  of  the 
slain  absolute,  and  vainly  seeks  to  escape  the  relative  character 
his  critiques  make  inevitable  for  all  knowledge  whether  in  the 
fields  of  metaphysics  or  ethics.  The  will  to  do  the  moral  thing  M 
is  according  to  Kant  the  final  essence  of  morality.  He  rightly 
rejects  all  final  authority  outside  of  ourselves  as  capable  of 
giving  content  to  the  moral  life;  he  fails  to  draw  the  inevitable 
conclusion  that  the  content  must  ever  be  a  relatively  correct 
interpretation  of  human  experience.  The  concept  of  "ought- 
ness"  is  empty  until  experience  gives  it  content;  but  experience 
without  the  concept  "oughtness"  could  never  produce  the  moral 
life  but  would  move  in  the  realm  of  mechanical  causation. 
Even  the  Golden  Rule,  of  which  Kant's  formula  is  but  a  modi- 
fication, is  an  empty  concept  until  intelligent  interpretation  of 
our  own  experience  gives  it  content.  We  simply  do  not  yet 
intelligently  know  what  we  want  others  to  do  to  us.  It 'is  taking 
us  centuries  of  ethical  experience  to  find  out. 

Thus  Kant  does  no  proper  justice  to  eudaemonism  as  a  test  > 
of  empiric  morality.     And  this  was  because  he  failed  to  catch 
the  genetic  point  of  view  already  on  the  horizon.    He  for  the 
same  reason  utterly  failed  to  grasp  either  the  meaning  and  dig- 
nity of  the  morality  of  the  Old  Testament  or  the  gentle  gracious- 
ness  of  the  ethics  of  Jesus  and  Paul.    His  own  actual  ethical 
thinking  was  hard  and  cold,  though  lofty  and  imposing.    His 
own  mental  world  was  a  reaction,  not  only  upon  the  dogmatic  I 
rationalism  of  the  schools,  but  upon  the  Pietism  of  his  early 
training.     And  yet  he  saved  Protestant  ethical  thinking  from  ^ 
being  lost  once  more  in  a  rationalistic  scholasticism  on  the  one 
hand,  and  from  seeking  its  salvation  from  that  fate  in  ascetic 
and  mystic  emotionalism  on  the  other. 


58o  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  ethics  of  Fichte^  reveal  a  strong  emotional  reaction  from 
the  world  of  Kant's  interest  on  the  basis  of  that  side  of  his 
thinking  in  which  the  "thing-in-itself"  was  the  important  ele- 
ment. Kant  disowned  Fichte,  just  as  Fichte  disowned  Kant; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  Kant  left  an  unresolved  discord 
between  the  noumenal  and  phenomenal.  Fichte  instinctively 
turned  with  his  keen  ethical  interest  to  the  noumenal,  where  Kant 
had  placed  ethics.  And  on  the  basis  of  the  autonomous  "I" 
in  its  relation  to  the  "not-I,"  evolved  a  fantastic  but  most  inter- 
esting rationalism.  The  meeting-place  of  the  objective  and  the 
subjective  is  the  "'I'  the  intelligence,  the  Reason."^  The 
freedom  of  the  "I"  is  the  essential  postulate  not  only  for  moral 
action,  but  for  any  action  at  all,  and  the  outcome  of  the  extensive 
dialectic  of  the  whole  first  two  parts^  is  the  simple  Kantian 
formula,  "Act  always  according  to  your  best  persuasion  of  your 
duty."  The  universality  of  the  command  links  us  with  the 
unchanging  intelligible  world,  whereas  the  wavering  obedience 
to  nature's  impulses  links  us  with  the  changes  in  time,*  in  the 
world  of  time.  The  correctness  of  our  persuasion  must  come 
from  within,  and  the  guarantee  is  not  given  in  theoretical  knowl- 
edge but  as  a  "practical"  (moral)  judgment. 

The  rationalistic  character  of  the  ethics  is  seen  in  the  three 
moral  laws  which  Fichte  formulates:  "i.  Negative:  never  sub- 
ordinate your  theoretical  reason  as  such,  but  investigate  (forsche) 
with  absolute  freedom  without  reference  to  anything  but  your 
knowledge  (Erkenntniss).  (Set  no  goal  [Ziel]  for  yourself 
beforehand,  for  where  should  it  come  from?)  2.  Positive: 
Cultivate  (bilde)  your  capacity  for  knowledge  as  far  as  you  can: 

'  Fichte,  Johann  Gottlieb,  1762-1814.  Collected  works  in  eight  volumes,  by 
J.  H.  Fichte,  Berlin,  1845-1846.  Those  of  special  interest  to  the  student  of 
ethics  are  "Grundlage  des  Naturrechts  nach  Principien  der  Wissenschaftslehre," 
vol.  Ill,  pp.  1-385;  "Die  Staatslehrc,  oder  iiber  das  Verhaltniss  des  Urstaates 
zum  Vcrnunftreiche,"  vol.  IV,  pp.  396-600,  and,  particularly,  "System  der 
Sittenlehre  nach  den  Principien  der  Wissenschaft,"  vol.  IV,  pp.  1-365,  and 
"Rcden  an  die  deutsche  Nation,"  vol.  VII,  pp.  259-516. 

'  "Die  Ichheit,  die  Intelligenz,  die  Vcrnunft,"  "Works,"  vol.  IV,  p.  i. 

'  First  and  second  "HauptstQck,"  "Works,"  vol.  IV,  1-156. 

*"Works,"vol.  IV,  p.  169. 


CHURCHLY  AND   PHILOSOPHICAL   ETHICS  581 

learn,  think,  investigate,  as  far  as  it  is  possible  for  you.  3. 
Limiting :  relate  all  your  reflection,  however,  formaliter  to  your 
duty. — Investigate  as  a  matter  of  duty  and  not  from  simple 
intellectual  curiosity,  or  to  simply  occupy  yourself. — Do  not 
think  in  order  to  discover  this  or  that  as  your  duty — for  how 
could  you  before  your  own  personal  knowledge  know  your 
duty? — but  in  order  to  recognize  what  your  duty  is."  * 

The  extreme  individualism  that  would  naturally  result  from 
Fichte's  ethical  fundamental  postulate  he  modifies  by  his  inter- 
posed state,  which  plays  a  great  part  even  in  his  ethics,^  but  into 
which  space  forbids  us  to  enter. 

His  practical  ethics  comes  to  light  in  his  "Reden,"  or  "Ad- 
dresses to  the  German  Nation,"  in  which,  amidst  a  good  deal 
of  confusion  and  much  that  is  extravagant  and  fantastic,  a  high 
ideal  is  set  forth,  and  produced  great  social  and  political  effect.^ 

So  also  the  church  has  a  place  in  Fichte's  ethics,  as  the  place 
of  union  about  simple  symbols  of  a  common  purpose,^  but  not 
in  such  a  way  as  to  form  a  tyranny  over  our  own  free  thought 
as  to  what  the  symbol  stands  for. 

The  final  sections  of  the  third  division^  of  his  system  are  given 
up  to  his  discussion  of  duties,  which  is  a  rather  disappointing 
treatment  and  has  less  originality  than  in  the  "Reden,"  more 
particularly  as  the  social  order  is  treated  unconsciously  as  Stoic. 

The  ethics  of  Schelling  present  no  material  advance  upon 
Fichte,  as  one  might  assume  from  his  predominant  interest.  As 
in  Spinoza,  the  metaphysico-cosmical  swallows  up  the  ethics. 

A  real  advance  was,  however,  made  by  Hegel,^  in  his  intro- 
duction of  the  historic  genetic  point  of  view.     The  ethics  are  not 

*  "Das  system  der  Sittenlehre,"  "Works,"  vol.  IV,  p.  218. 

'Besides  his  "Grundlage  des  Naturrechts,"  "Works,"  vol.  Ill,  1-385,  see 
"Der  geschlossene  Handelsstaat,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  385^-513,  and  "Das  System  der 
Sittenlehre,"  "Works,"  vol.  IV,  pp.  238^. 

'  There  are  many  editions.     In  the  collected  works  in  vol.  VII,  pp.  259-499. 

*  Among  many  passages,  see  "Das  System  der  Sittenlehre,"  "Works,"  vol.  IV, 
pp.  241-245. 

*  "Works,"  vol.  IV,  pp.  254-365. 

*  Hegel,  Georg  Wilhelm  Friedrich,  1770-1831.  Collected  works  in  nineteen 
volumes,  by  the  "  Hegel  Verein,"  Berlin,  1832  jf.     Most  of  the  volumes  have  been 


582  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

fully  developed,  but  the  social  character  is  marked,  and  is  in 
many  respects  a  development  of  and  advance  upon  Kant's 
"Kingdom  of  Ends."  The  moral  ideal  unfolds  itself  in  the 
family,  the  citizenship,  and  the  State,  and  the  philosophy  of  his- 
tory is  the  explication  of  this  unfolding.  The  conception  of 
liberty  as  taught  by  Rousseau  is  now  delineated  under  the  familiar 
formulae  of  thesis,  antithesis,  and  synthesis.  But  the  idealism 
is  the  unfolding  of  an  objective  absolute  in  very  dififerent  terms 
from  those  of  Fichte  and  Schelling.  Nor  does  Hegel  succeed 
in  keeping  morality  and  legality  as  far  apart  as  the  underlying 
Kantian  thought  demands.  In  fact  morality  consists  largely 
in  adjusting  the  relations  of  free  personalities  on  the  basis,  it 
is  true,  of  an  unfolding  of  personal  moral  obligation. 

The  influence  of  Hegel  has  been  remarkable,  and  no  one  hav- 
ing once  come  under  the  influence  of  his  thought  ever  seems 
wholly  to  escape  the  forms  in  which  he  did  his  thinking.  The 
social  character  of  his  ethics  and  theory  of  law  has  been  pro- 
foundly influential.  The  State,  as  Hegel  conceived  it,  being  the 
phenomenal  reality  of  the  unfolding  moral  purpose,  and  hence 
the  constantly  increasing  realization  of  God's  will  on  earth. 

In  Protestantism  Hegelianism  gave  rise  to  two  great  move- 
ments: the  one  the  critical  school  now  known  as  the  Baur- 
Tiibingen  school,  the  ethics  of  which  remain  in  the  framework 
of  Hegel's  earlier  thought;  the  other  the  reaction  upon  Hegel 
in  the  extremely  influential  ethics  of  Schkiermacher} 

The  ethics  of  Schleiermacher  have  a  twofold  character.  He 
separates  philosophical  from  Christian  ethics.     On  the  philo- 

since  re-edited.  Those  of  most  interest  to  the  student  of  ethics  are  vol.  VIII, 
containing  the  "Grundlinie  dcr  Philosophic  des  Rechts,"  etc.,  and  vol.  IX, 
"Vorlesungen  liber  die  Philosophic  der  Geschichte,"  2d  cd.,  by  Hegel's  son. 
But  to  understand  Hegel  the  student  must  master  the  extremely  diflScult  vol.  II, 
" Phaenomenologie  des  Geistcs."  "The  Philosophy  of  Right"  is  translated  by 
Dyde,  S.  W.  London,  1896.  A  "System  der  Sittlichkeit,"  published  from  the 
manuscripts  after  death,  and  without  the  author's  revision,  was  published  by 
Georg  Mollat,  1893,  but  adds  little  light  upon  his  ethical  system. 

■Schleiermacher,  Friedrich  Ernest  Daniel,  1 768-1834.  Collected  works  in 
three  divisions:  I,  "Zur  Thcologie";  II,  "Predigten";  III,  "Zur  Philosophic 
und  Vcrmischtc  Schriften,"  Berlin,  1835-1864. 


CHURCHLY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  583 

sophic  side  he  attempts  on  the  basis  of  Kant  to  escape  the  mo- 
nastic determinism  of  Spinoza  by  postulating  in  the  world  of 
determined  causality,  moral  beings  acting  as  well  as  being  acted 
upon.  It  is  at  this  point  that  Hegel's  thought  merges  with 
Spinoza.  Every  part  of  our  world  is  both  acting  (tatig)  and 
suffering  action  (leidend) .  As  acting  we  feel  ourselves  free  and 
are  justified  in  this  feeling.  As  suffering  action  we  feel  our- 
selves dependent.  When  we  raise  these  primary  experiences 
into  the  world  of  ultimate  reality  we  have  morality  and  religion. 
For  religion  is  the  sense  of  dependence  and  morality  the  sense 
of  free  activity.  But  this  free  activity  is  not  emancipation  from 
the  chain  of  causation,  but  the  development  of  each  according 
to  the  law  of  its  being.  Man  being  a  moral  being  with  the  sense 
of  dependence  must  be  alike  moral  and  religious  in  order  to 
reach  full  manhood.  Sin  is  eventually  traced  to  lack  of  (moral) 
intelligence.  The  "lower"  forces  are  not  mastered  by  the  moral 
will  and  brought  into  harmony  with  the  dominating  aim.  Sin 
is  "ugly"  and  unaesthetic.  This  (moral)  intelligence  must  be 
combined  with  "nature,"  and  the  process  gives  us  "goods." 
The  discussion  of  these  "goods"  or  values  forms  the  first  part 
of  his  ethics.  The  absolute  unity  of  reason  and  nature  in  a 
mastery  of  nature  by  reason  is  the  highest  good.  And  in  this 
discussion  the  influence  of  Platonic  intellectualism  is  apparent. 
In  order  to  attain  the  highest  we  must  have  inward  power,  and 
this  is  virtue,  whose  discussion  is  the  second  point  of  view  from 
which  the  whole  field  of  ethics  may  be  seen.  These  virtues  may 
be  divided  according  as  reason  (moral)  is  directed  upon  nature 
to  attain  harmony  with  it.  But  a  third  point  of  view  from 
which  again  the  whole  ethical  field  may  be  viewed  is  that  of 
"  Duty,"  which  represents  the  relation  of  the  moral  being  in  the 
variety  of  his  actions  to  the  end  or  goal  of  his  moral  purpose. 
This  involves  a  relation  to  the  moral  law,  and  the  various  atti- 
tudes give  us  the  various  duties.  Thus  we  have  in  ethics  a 
Doctrine  of  Values,  a  Doctrine  of  Virtues,  and  a  Doctrine  of 
Duties.* 

*  Giiterlehre;   Tugendlehre;    Pflichtenlehre. 


584  HISTORY  OF   CHRISTIAN   ETHICS 

Rather  complicated  divisions  mark  the  application  of  Schlei- 
ermacher's  ethics.  He  has  two  regions  of  marked  social  sig- 
nificance; these  are  our  relations  with  one  another  in  systematized 
contact  (verkehr)  and  systematized  thought  and  speech.  But 
we  have  also  morals  growing  out  of  our  unfolding  personalities, 
in  property  and  in  our  personal  feelings.  All  these  are  spheres 
of  moral  activity.  They  give  rise  respectively  to  law,  to  faith, 
to  social  activities,  and  to  revelation,  which  must  ever  remain 
therefore  individual.  These  find  their  appropriate  expression 
in  the  State,  the  church,  the  social  association,  and  the  school. 
All  have  a  common  basis  in  the  family  in  which  personality  and 
the  "other  personality"  are  brought  into  unity.  On  this  basis 
also  he  tries  to  classify  both  the  virtues  and  the  duties,  and 
inspirational  and  edifying  as  much  of  his  treatment  is,  it  is  too 
much  an  artificial  scheme  to  be  really  satisfactory. 

Schleiermacher  must  be  still  classified  in  the  field  of  ethics 
as  a  rationalist;  he  is  indeed  a  critical  rationalist,  under  the 
distinct  influence  of  Kant,  but  the  concept  is  after  all  the 
essence  of  the  ethical  reality,  and  the  unfolding  of  the  concept 
is  the  key  to  truth.  The  genealogy  of  his  thought  is  to  be 
traced  through  Spinoza  to  Plato;  and  his  influence  in  the 
thought  of  the  more  recent  men  like  Pfleiderer  is  always  on 
the  side  of  this  somewhat  barren  even  if  most  fascinating 
intellectualism.* 

2.  Kantianism  had,  however,  another  line  of  development. 
As  Fichte  and  Hegel  caught  at  the  transcendental  elements  of 
his  system,  and  by  giving  them  the  emphasis  worked  out  philo- 
sophic structures  which  were  most  perilously  near  the  very  thing 
against  which  he  felt  himself  born  to  protest,  so  the  empiric 
elements  of  his  thought  called  into  being  systems  in  which 
the  transcendental  was  distinctly  ignored,  or  dealt  with  as  gen- 
tle and  even  useful  but  wholly  unscientific  dreaming  and 
speculation.     Such  was  the  attitude  of  one  of  the  most  strik- 

'  This  intellectualism  appears  also  in  the  work  of  Schopenhauer  and  von 
Hartmann,  whose  ethics  are  based  on  "pity"  defined  in  terms  of  Buddhism 
rather  than  Christianity,  but  which  lie  beyond  our  scope. 


CHURCHLY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  585 

ing  and  attractive  figures  in  all  German  philosophy,  Gustav 
Fechner/ 

Fechner  is  patently  dependent  upon  Kant  in  his  theory  of 
knowledge,  and  the  use  he  makes  of  it  is  to  separate  sharply 
between  the  two  worlds  of  our  experience — that  of  empiric 
sensational  experience  and  that  of  experience  with  the  super- 
sensual  values.  These  two  are  equally  valid  experiences  but 
give  quite  different  types  of  assurance.  We  may,  and  indeed 
must,  deal  honestly  with  both,  but  we  cannot  at  our  peril  confuse 
them.  Most  amusing  is  one  of  Fechner's  skits  in  which  he 
holds  up  to  ridicule  this  confusion  in  "A  comparative  anatomy 
of  the  angels"  (1825).  We  may  seek,  for  instance,  from  the 
physical  study  of  plants  to  determine  the  type  of  their  phenom- 
enal existence,  but  having  determined  the  type  only  analogy 
with  our  own  psychical  life  can  give  us  any  clew  to  its  character. 
When  Fechner,  therefore,  turns  to  transcendental  metaphysics, 
he  lets  his  beautiful  fantasy  and  imagination  have  full  sway. 
He  is  poet  and  mystic  and  seer  by  highest  divine  right,  for  here 
we  are  not  bound  by  sensational  empiricism,  but  by  experience 
in  the  field  of  aesthetic,  moral,  and  religious  values.  He  has  no 
organized  ethics  on  this  basis,  but  its  constitution  would  not  be 
a  difficult  task. 

In  many  respects  seeking  the  same  aim  is  one  of  the  greatest 
of  post-Kantian  thinkers,  Lotze? 

On  the  basis  of  critical  intuitionalism,  Lotze  seeeks  to  over- 


*  Fechner,  Gustav  Theodor,  1801-1887.  The  writings  of  interest  to  us  are 
especially:  "Die  Tagesansicht  gegeniiber  der  Nachtansicht,"  1879;  "Nannaoder 
iiber  das  Seelenleben  des  Pflanzen,"  2d  edition,  1899,  and  "Zendavesta  oder 
iiber  die  Dinge  des  Himmels  und  des  Jenseits,"  2d  edition,  1901,  and  "Das 
Btichlein  vom  Leben  nach  dem  Tode,"  4th  edition,  1900. 

*  Lotze,  Rudolph  Hermann  (1817-1881).  His  interest  was  religious  and 
ethical  throughout.  The  student  of  ethics  will  find  the  best  statement  in  his 
"  Mikrokosmus,  Ideen  zur  Naturgeschichte  und  Geschichte  der  Menschheit," 
3  vols.,  5th  edition  in  1896,  and  particularly  in  book  V,  chap.  5,  and  book  VI, 
chaps.  1-5  (both  in  vol.  H).  The  English  translation  is  in  two  volumes  (1885). 
See  also  "Grundziige  der  praktischen  Philosophie,"  notes  taken  in  his  class- 
room and  published,  second  edition,  1884.  Professor  Rehnisch  has  collected 
the  most  complete  list  of  Lotze's  writings.  They  are  published  as  an  appendix 
to  "Notes  on  Psychology,"  published  in  the  same  series,  1881-1884. 


586  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

come  the  dualism  which  unquestionably  remains  in  Kant.  As 
in  Schleiermacher  and  Fechner  certain  elements  are  taken  over 
from  the  metaphysics  of  Spinoza,  but  the  mechanical  determin- 
ism of  Spinoza  is  rejected  and  in  Kantian  terms.  The  ethical 
man  has  as  a  fundamental  experience  the  sense  of  "ought." 
Against  determinismus,  "theoretically  there  is  nothing  to  be 
said.  The  motive  to  the  denial  of  such  views  lies  in  the  wholly 
undemonstrable  but  strong  and  immediate  conviction  that  they 
are  false,  and  that  the  conception  of  an  'ought'  and  'obligation,' 
which  has  no  place  in  this  view  (deterministic),  is  on  the  contrary 
of  the  most  sure  and  the  most  unquestioned  validity."  ^ 

But  on  the  other  hand  Lotze  subjects  Kant's  categorical 
imperative  and  his  "naked  sense  of  obligation,"  without  reference 
to  pleasure  and  pain,  to  a  searching  and  destructive  criticism. 
He  shows  that  in  truth  such  an  abstract  emotionless  moral 
sense  is  impossible.  All  we  can  postulate  is  the  capacity  for  a 
moral  ideal;  the  working  out  of  that  moral  ideal  must  be  under 
the  conditions  of  pleasure  and  pain.  Then  we  are  confronted 
by  the  task  of  determining  the  worth  or  value  of  different  types 
of  pleasure  and  pain,  and  these  estimates  of  worth  or  value  depend 
upon  the  constitution  of  the  individual  who  estimates;  and  the 
estimates  again  take  place  under  the  complex  conditions  of 
varied  human  life  in  its  inter-relations  with  other  human  lives 
and  with  nature.  "Pleasure  in  itself  is,  then,  that  light  in  which 
existing  reality  first  displays  its  own  objective  excellence  and 
beauty."  ^  Thus  the  content  of  all  traditional  morality  grows 
out  of  experience  and  is  not  the  unfolding  of  universal  prin- 
ciples; and  experiences  are  of  pleasure  and  pain,  of  worth  and 
worthlessness.  Conscious  principles  of  action  are  slowly 
formed,  and  their  application  to  complex  situations  tests  their 
validity  and  gives  them  ever  greater  hold  over  us  as  they  justify 
themselves  in  experience.  Thus  in  ever  greater  degree  the 
intellect  is  called  in  to  co-operate  with  the  moral,  volitional,  and 
emotional  elements  in  our  nature  to  formulate  moral  concepts 
whose  binding  force  upon  our  life  is  their  appeal  to  our  whole 

'  "Grundzijge  der  praktischen  Philosophic,"  1884,  p.  25. 

*  Mikrokosmus,  book  I,  chap.  5  (the  fourth  section  in  the  translation). 


CHURCHLY  AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  587 

nature,  and  their  ever  greater  justification  in  the  widening 
moral  experience  of  the  race. 

In  this  way  Lotze  seeks  to  make  room  for  the  empirical  ele- 
ments in  the  totality  of  any  given  morality.  His  idealism  is 
therefore  also  teleological,  because  the  morality  of  an  action  is 
determined  not  only  by  the  abstract  sense  of  obligation  as  Kant 
defined  it,  but  also  by  the  degree  of  value  or  worth  that  the  end 
possesses  which  the  moral  agent  sets  before  himself. 

In  marked  independency  this  line  of  thought  reflects  itself  in 
the  work  of  such  recent  men  as  Paulsen,  Wundt,  and  Hoffding; 
and  it  forms  also  the  basis  of  the  ethics  of  Albrecht  Ritschl, 
whose  dogmatic  interest,  however,  prevented  him  from  ever 
organizing  his  ethics  in  the  same  full  way. 

Thus  the  systematic  ethics  of  modern  Protestantism  has 
broken  the  bounds  of  its  ecclesiastical  organization.  In  an  ever- 
increasing  degree  organized  religious  life  must  restrict  itself  to 
inspiring  men  to  seek  the  highest  ethical  ideals  and  to  give 
strength  and  consolation  to  them  in  the  search,  but  refuses  to 
dogmatically  formulate  the  content  of  that  ideal.  Thus  the 
formal  concept  of  the  kingdom  of  God  must  receive  its  content 
from  the  advancing  political,  social,  and  ethical  experiences  of 
the  race,  and  these  experiences  must  be  interpreted  into  all 
manner  of  new  social  and  ethical  experiments.  The  family 
group  that  gave  form  and  color  to  the  ethical  ideals  of  Jesus 
still  maintains  itself  in  the  Christian  consciousness  as  the  pro- 
foundest  basis  for  the  ethical  life;  and  in  the  exaltation  of  the 
moral  autonomy  of  each  member  of  the  group  as  the  aim  of  the 
group,  both  the  high  individualism  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
the  exalted  social  ideals  of  the  Old  Testament,  on  its  highest 
levels,  are  resolved  into  a  higher  unity. 

How  completely  modern  empiric  ethics  has  united  itself  with 
an  ideal  philosophy  which  may  or  may  not  be  interpreted  in  a 
Christian  sense  is  seen  in  the  theory  of  ethics  held  by  Wundt} 

'  Wundt,  Wilhelm  M.,  183a.  The  student  of  ethics  should  get  first  an  intro- 
duction to  his  system  either  by  reading  his  "Einleitung  in  die  Philosophic,"  4th 
ed.,  1906,  or  his  "System  der  Philosophic,"  2d  ed.,   1889.     His  ethics  he  has 


588  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

The  philosophic  substructure  is  based  upon  the  critical  psychol- 
ogy of  Kant,  and  the  influence  of  Spinoza  and  Fechner  are  appar- 
ent. Like  Fechner  and  Lotze,  Wundt  has  flung  himself  upon 
the  psycho-physical  questions,  but  with  a  perfectly  clear  under- 
standing of  the  limitations  of  this  method.  His  ethics  also  are 
a  severe  and  most  instructive  application  of  the  historical  method 
to  the  content  of  the  ethical  experience,  but  again  with  a  clear 
perception  of  the  fact  that  the  original  impulses  are  not  explained 
in  the  fullest  unfolding  of  their  content.  "How  out  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  nervous  system  moral  perceptions  (Anschauun- 
gen)  should  arise  is  and  remains  a  mystery."  *  At  the  same 
time  philosophy  is  given  its  full  place  in  the  inquiry  concerning 
the  rise  and  development  of  the  categories  of  the  understanding 
and  the  place  of  what  Kant  would  call  the  "pure  reason." 
With  this  a  thorough-going,  undogmatic  Protestantism  is  gladly 
content.  Under  the  inspiration  of  Luther  a  good  Protestant 
takes  his  vitalizing  faith  into  all  life,  and  the  legitimate  processes 
of  the  laboratory  and  the  historical  study  become  God's  guidance 
to  his  feet,  even  though  he  recognizes  the  relative  character  of 
all  rational  process  and  finds  his  ultimate  finalities  in  the  realm 
of  the  transcendent  hope  and  faith. 

3.  The  rationalism  of  France  grew  up  within  the  limits  of 
Roman  Catholicism,  but  in  varied  degrees  of  open  warfare  with 
its  authority.  The  results  upon  the  ethical  life  and  ethical 
thought  cannot,  from  a  Protestant  point  of  view,  be  regarded 
as  fortunate.  True  it  is  that  the  humanitarian  idealism  of 
Rousseau,  and  to  a  lesser  degree  Montesquieu  and  Voltaire,  never 
wholly  disappears.  But  values  seem  at  times  irrecoverably  lost 
in  the  shipwreck  of  authority,  and  all  such  attempts  at  again 
rationalizing  the  authority,  as  those  of  Lamennais,  met  with 
little  success.    The  church  as  a  cultural  institution  remarkably 

given  in  his  "Ethik,"  2  vols.,  3d  ed.,  1903  (English  translation  of  early  edition). 
His  "Vorlesungen  uber  die  Mcnschen  und  Ticrseelen,"  4th  ed.,  1906,  are  also 
of  deep  interest.  His  pupil  and  friend.  Dr.  Rudolph  Eisler,  has  condensed  his 
philosophy  into  a  small  volume,  "  Die  Philosophie  und  Psychologie  W.  Wundt," 
1902. 

'  "Ethik,"  p.  344  of  edition  1886. 


CHURCHLY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  589 

reasserted  herself,  but  she  failed  to  really  dominate  the  moral 
and  intellectual  situation.  We  have  therefore  hardly  any  excuse 
for  touching  French  philosophical  ethics  in  connection  with 
organized  Christianity,  save  the  general  one  that  Protestantism 
is  a  demand  for  spiritual  maturity  and  adult  autonomy,  and  that 
French  thought  has  powerfully  contributed  to  that  end.  Voltaire 
based  his  thought  upon  Newton  and  Locke,  and  far  from  being 
an  "atheist"  maintained  not  only  the  being  of  God,  but  that  it 
was  capable  of  rational  proof  by  the  cosmological  and  teleolog- 
ical  arguments.  His  life-long  struggle  was  with  the  dogmatic 
authority  of  the  church.  His  ethics  were  substantially  again 
those  of  the  English  rationalists,  but  his  powerful  and  artistic 
interpretation  make  them  still  exceedingly  attractive  reading, 
although  the  English  student  of  the  Deist  movement  will  find 
surprisingly  little  that  is  novel  in  Voltaire. 

He  interpreted  English  rationalism  to  the  Continent,  and  his 
three  years'  residence  in  London  had  put  him  in  touch  with  all 
that  was  best  in  English  rationalism. 

Nor  will  the  student  of  ethics  find  much  in  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau  which  is  essentially  an  advance  upon  Locke,  who  is 
far  more  systematic  than  Rousseau,  but  lacks  the  wonderful 
artistic  glow  that  gives  Rousseau  his  power  and  has  led  to  such 
great  overrating  of  the  content  of  his  thought.  He,  the  supreme 
artist,  raves  at  art,  and  he  himself  the  most  artificial  product  of 
the  scientific  education  of  his  day,  dreams  of  a  return  to  bar- 
barism as  the  ideal.  Even  Rousseau's  democracy  is  a  good 
deal  like  the  china  shepherd  and  shepherdesses  to  which  the 
fashion  he  set  gave  rise — it  is  a  democracy  without  real  human 
needs  moving  in  wig  and  high-heeled  shoes. 

His  influence  for  good,  however,  was  enormous.  Education, 
art,  literature,  statecraft,  as  well  as  the  great  popular  movement 
that  culminated  in  the  blessings  of  the  French  Revolution,  owed 
great  debts  to  him.  To  him  also,  as  well  as  to  Voltaire,  the  en- 
cyclopaedists were  much  indebted.  And  one  has  only  to  look 
back  at  the  great  encyclopaedia  of  Diderot  and  d'Alembert  to 
realize  what  a  giant's  task  he  inspired  these  men  to. 


590  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

If  the  physiocrats  owed  their  fundamental  philosophy  to 
English  philosophy,  they  repaid  the  debt  in  the  way  they  influ- 
enced and  fructified  in  their  turn  the  thought  of  Adam  Smith. 
The  ethics  of  all  these  men  is  based  on  a  crass  materialism  only 
at  times  softened  and  modified  by  an  almost  equally  crass  pan- 
theism. But  when  it  is  remembered  against  what  intrenched 
dogmatism  they  were  fighting,  much  can  and  must  be  forgiven 
them. 

Nor  will  the  student  of  ethics  find  much  of  original  interest 
in  Victor  Cousin,  whose  philosophy  lies  between  Hume  and 
Hegel  and  whose  ethical  interest  was  swallowed  up  in  the 
metaphysical.  Some  idea  of  his  exceedingly  interesting  thought 
may  be  gained  from  his  admirable  work  on  Abelard,  which  has 
been  already  noted,  but  his  strength  was  rather  in  brilliant  crit- 
ical insight  than  in  profound  constructive  development. 

Protestantism,  using  the  term  in  the  broad  sense  indicated 
above,  has  felt  deeply  the  impact  of  a  writer  now  more  talked 
about  than  actually  read.  The  student  of  John  Stuart  Mill  will 
always  turn  to  find  out  the  secret  of  the  great  influence  exercised 
upon  that  cool  intellect  by  Auguste  Comte,^  whose  "religion" 
has  rather  discredited  his  philosophy.  Comte  traces  three  stages 
in  man's  history,  called  respectively:  (i)  The  theological  (2) 
the  metaphysical,  and  (3)  the  positive.  This  evolution  is 
deeply  ethical  and  culminates  in  the  science  of  sociology.  The 
emotional  nature  should  be  supreme,  but  the  intellect  is  no  longer 
the  slave  of  the  heart  but  should  be  its  servant.  The  ethical 
man  is  the  man  who  subordinates  the  lower  to  the  higher,  and 
who  therefore  makes  his  passions  and  lower  life  subject  under 
love  to  his  reason.  Society  will  be  moral  when  science  reigns 
supreme  in  the  organization  of  human  life,  and  the  motive  to 

'Comte,  Auguste  (1798-1859).  His  ethics  are  embraced  in  his  "Syst^me 
de  politique  positive,  ou  trait^  de  sociologie  instituant  la  religion  de  I'humanit^," 
4  vols.,  Paris,  1851-1854.  English  translation  1875-1877.  Cf.,  also,  Harriet 
Martineau's  "The  Positive  Philosophy  of  Auguste  Comte  Freely  Translated 
and  Condensed,"  London,  1871.  See,  also,  Comte'sown  "Catechisme  Positiviste, 
ou  Sommaire  Exposition  de  la  Religion  universelle,"  Paris,  1852,  3d  ed.,  1890 
(also  English  translation). 


CHURCHLY  AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  591 

well-doing  will  be  a  deeply  religious  life  centring  in  a  cult  about 
ideal  humanity.  This  will  always  be  progressive,  for  Comte 
considers  Leibnitz's  optimism  shallow  and  based  on  a  false 
theology.  Even  the  heavenly  bodies  do  not  work  perfectly,  and 
improvements  could  easily  be  suggested  upon  the  "laws  of 
nature."  We  have  no  reason  for  believing  either  that  moral 
perfection  is  within  our  reach,  but  the  highest  rationality  is  the 
highest  morality  and  to  that  we  should  progressively  move. 
For  Comte  regards  it  as  the  great  error  of  all  science,  but  par- 
ticularly of  history  and  sociology,  that  the  fields  of  inquiry  have 
been  regarded  statically.  Comte  denounces  the  undue  praise  of 
antiquity.  According  to  him,  the  mediaeval  is  better  than  the 
classic  period  and  modernism  an  advance  upon  both.  Nor  is 
sufficient  attention  paid  to  the  fact  that  both  observer  and  thing 
observed  are  in  a  constant  state  of  change.  One  cannot  but 
notice  the  Hegelian  forms  of  thought  in  the  discussion  of  history, 
although  the  men  had  almost  nothing  in  common,  and  the  present 
writer  knows  of  no  interchange  of  thought  Moral  advance  is  a 
constant  synthesis  of  the  elements  of  advance,  and  action  and 
reaction  follow  one  another.  Comte  is  a  pure  phenomenalist. 
We  know  nothing  but  laws  of  activity,  and  all  this  knowledge  is 
relative.  This  is  as  true  in  the  field  of  ethics  as  in  any  other 
field.  He  has  no  satisfactory  discussion  of  the  subordination 
of  the  individual  to  the  group,  but  always  assumes  it.  He  sees 
in  the  working  class  and  in  women  the  receptive  elements  in 
society  for  the  new  religion. 

This  last  stage  of  Comte's  thought  suggests  the  disordered 
mind,  so  extravagant  are  its  pretensions  and  so  fanciful  its  pro- 
visions. He  suffered  mentally  in  younger  years  and  was  confined 
in  an  asylum;  perhaps  sorrow  and  overwork  strained  his  mental 
faculties.  Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  his  influence  on  English 
thought  has  not  been  on  the  side  of  religion.  Mill  and  Spencer 
are  unquestionably  deeply  influenced  by  Comte,*  and  we  owe 
much  to  him  for  his  social  ethics  and  the  remarkably  modern 
classification  of  the  sciences,  in  which,  however,  one  fatal  omis- 

*  Herbert  Spencer's  disavowal  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 


592  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

sion  removes  it  from  the  most  modern  world,  for  Comte  never 
realized  what  Kant  had  made  necessary  upon  the  fields  of  both 
speculative  and  experimental  psychology. 

4.  Dissent  in  England  had  its  intellectual  lights  and  shadows. 
On  the  one  hand  it  separated  thoughtful  men  from  the  in- 
telligence and  culture  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  to  a  degree 
alike  bad  for  them  and  for  the  historic  universities.  On  the 
other  hand  it  needed  strength  of  mind  and  individuality  to 
maintain  the  separation,  and  it  bred  a  detachment  of  mind 
most  useful  for  launching  out  into  new  fields.  A  man  like  Joseph 
Priestley  (i 733-1804)  stands  out  as  an  intellectual  worker  of  the 
first  class,  but  with  defects  born  of  his  relative  isolation.  He  was 
a  follower  of  Hartley  in  his  insistence  upon  psychology  being 
made  a  branch  of  physiology,  while  still  asserting  the  indepen- 
dence of  metaphysics  and  the  immortal  character  of  the  soul. 
For  the  student  of  ethics  he  is  mainly  interesting  only  in  con- 
troversy with  another  great  dissenter,  Richard  Price. ^  Both 
had  learnt  scientific  method  not  from  Bacon,  but  from  Newton, 
and  both  were  intensely  interested  in  metaphysics.  Indeed  the 
battle  was  now  hot  between  the  immaterialism  of  Berkeley 
(1684- 1 753)  and  the  materialism  in  various  shades  held  by  men 
influenced  deeply  by  Hartley  and  Priestley.  Price  follows 
Plato's  distinction  between  sense  and  understanding,^  and  then 
treats  duration  and  space  and  reality,  etc.,  as  necessary  elements 
of  the  understanding.  Power  and  causation  are  also  ideas  the 
understanding  brings  with  it.  Experience  has  only  a  secondary 
place  in  our  knowledge.  "  Experience  and  observation  are  only 
of  use  when  we  are  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  object  and 
cannot  in  a  more  perfect  .  .  .  way  determine  .  .  .  the  uses  of 

'  Price,  Richard  (1723-1791).  For  the  student  of  ethics  his  main  works  are 
"A  Review  of  the  Principal  Questions  in  Morality,"  1757,  and  later  editions. 
"Four  Dissertations,"  1767,  of  which  only  the  first,  "On  Providence,"  has 
ethical  interest,  save  as  side  lights  on  his  philosophy  are  found  in  the  third  on 
immorality  for  virtuous  men.  And  then  his  correspondence  with  Dr.  Priestley 
on  materialism  and  necessity  (London,  1778).  C/.,  also,  Priestley's  sermon  on 
Price's  death,  1791. 

'  He  refers  especially  to  Plato's  "Theatctus,"  p.  22,  note,  edition  1787. 


CHURCHLY  AND   PHILOSOPHICAL   ETHICS  593 

particular  objects."  *  Hence  Price  is  an  intuitionalist,  but  he 
comes  remarkably  near  the  later  critical  intuitionalism,  but  just 
misses  the  point  through  failure  in  psychological  analysis. 
Morality  is  eternal  and  immutable.  Right  and  wrong  denote 
what  actions  are,  and  they  are  this  by  nature  and  necessity. 
Man  has  certain  ideas  that  baffle  further  analysis.  **  Virtue  is 
essentially  a  proper  object  of  favor,  vice  of  discouragement." 
These  "ideas  arise  in  us  immediately,"  and  there  is  no  possible 
resolution  of  them  into  rational  consideration  of  public  utility 
and  inutility. 

Good  and  evil  are  not  even  matters  God's  will  can  determine. 
They  are  independent  of  him  in  the  same  sense  that  his  own 
existence  and  attributes  cannot  be  changed  by  him.  Knowledge 
rests  upon  "feeling,"  which  can  give  no  reason:  upon  "intu- 
ition," which  is  "  the  mind's  survey  of  its  own  ideas,  and  relations 
between  them,"  and  "argumentation  or  deduction."^ 

The  morality  of  an  action  depends  upon  the  will  of  the  actor 
to  conform  to  the  law  of  absolute  right.  "Virtue  is  a  law"  and 
is  "an  unalterable  and  indispensable  law,"  and  almost  in  antici- 
pation of  Kant  he  says,  "the  repeal,  suspension,  or  even  relaxa- 
tion of  it,  once  for  a  moment,  cannot  be  conceived  without 
contradiction.'  When  therefore  he  discusses  the  subject-matter 
of  virtue  he  turns  away  from  Butler's  rule  of  general  benevolence. 
His  treatment  is  based  like  Kant's  upon  duties.  These  we  owe  i^ 
first  to  God.  Subjection  and  homage  we  owe  him,  but  these 
cannot  be  possibly  paid  to  him  from  motives  of  "general  benevo- 
lence." We  render  him  no  service  in  our  worship  nor  should 
we  worship  him  to  secure  our  own  felicity.  We  worship.  Price 
claims,  as  an  "instance  of  immediate  duty  intuitively  perceived." 
Not  even  in  duty  to  self  is  self-love  a  sufficient  guide.  We  must 
act  from  sense  of  obligation  to  ourselves.  So  also  beneficence 
is  a  "duty  to  others."    Price  then  discusses  what  he  seems  to 

*  "Morals,"  p.  34,  edition  1787 

*  For  discussion,  see  "Review  of  Principal  Questions  in  Morals  "  pp.  158-167, 
edition  1787. 

*  "Review  of  Principal  Questions  in  Morals,"  p.  178 


594  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

regard  as  the  intuitive  virtues,  and  at  this  point  appeals  as  Reid 
does  later  to  "  common-sense."  The  discussion  is  most  valuable 
but  inconclusive.  The  exalted  tone,  and  often  extremely  acute 
reasoning  cannot  hide  the  fact  that  the  place  for  empiric  ethical 
experience  is  not  properly  defined  and  that  the  analysis  of  "  in- 
tuition" is  imperfect.* 

The  strongest  reaction  upon  Hume  was  that  of  the  uncritical 
intuitional  school  of  which  Reid^  was  the  principal  leader. 

Reid's  influence  has  been  very  great  although  really  exceed- 
ingly baleful.  For  in  point  of  fact  his  attitude  is  a  dogmatic 
acceptance  of  the  "material  reality"  of  the  external  world  which 
exists  as  perceived  without  reference  to  the  perceiving  mind. 
Hence  he  is  fundamentally  an  agnostic  whenever  serious  ques- 
tions are  asked  about  the  character  of  either  the  external  world 
or  the  perceiving  mind,  or  the  relations  between  the  two. 

His  morality  is  really  slipshod.  Moral  truths,  he  says,  "  may 
be  divided  into  two  classes,  to  wit,  such  as  are  self-evident  to 
every  man  whose  understanding  and  moral  faculty  are  ripe,  and 
such  as  are  deduced  by  reasoning  from  those  that  are  self- 
evident.  If  the  first  be  not  discerned  without  reasoning,  the 
last  never  can  be  so  by  any  reasoning."  '  "  Some  first  principles 
must  be  immediately  discerned,"  and  the  "evidence  of  these 
fundamental  principles  of  morals,  and  of  others  that  might  be 
named,  appears  then  to  me  to  be  intuitive  rather  than  demon- 
strative."   Reid  places  five  main  moral  intuitions  as  the  basis 

'  Price  took  the  side  of  the  struggling  colonists  in  America  during  the  war  for 
independence;  he  also  regarded  the  National  Assembly  of  France  as  the  first  note 
of  man's  ultimate  song  of  complete  freedom,  and  in  practical  matters  may  be 
regarded  as  the  father  of  exact  actuary  work  in  insurance.  Cf.  Priestely's  sermon 
on  his  death  in  1791. 

'  Reid,  Thomas,  D.  D.,  17 10-1796.  His  works  have  been  edited  by  Dugald 
Stewart,  Edinburgh,  1804,  and  re-edited  by  Sir  William  Hamilton,  1837.  An 
American  reprint  of  Dugald  Stewart's  edition  in  1813-1814  in  four  volumes. 
His  chief  contribution  is  "An  Inquiry  into  the  Human  Mind  on  the  Principles 
of  Common  Sense,"  London,  1764.  His  ethics  are  contained  in  the  "Essays  on 
the  Active  Powers  of  Man"  (1788)  in  the  collected  works  by  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton, and  the  4th  volume  of  the  American  edition 

•  Essay  VII,  chap.  2  ("Essays  on  the  Intellectual  Powers  of  Man"). 


CHURCHLY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  595 

of  what  then  becomes  a  rationalistic  system,  namely,  the  obliga- 
tion to  consult  one's  own  present  and  future  happiness;  to  be 
faithful  to  engagements;  to  obey  one's  maker;  to  injure  no 
man;  to  do  to  others  what  we  approve  in  other  men,  and  vice 
versa.  In  point  of  fact  he  admits  the  relative  character  of  all 
moral  conduct,  for  "prudence"  must  apply  these  first  principles, 
and  prudence  can  "very  rarely  use  demonstrative  reasoning,  but 
must  rest  in  what  appears  most  probable."  Throughout  Reid 
argues  from  what  must  be  "necessary"  as  "the  knowledge  that 
is  necessary  to  all  must  be  attainable  by  all."  ^  In]spite  of  much 
good  sense  and  even  acute  reasoning,  Reid  never  really  meets 
the  main  question,  and  his  morality  is  not  a  real  advance  upon 
the  systems  of  rationalism  which  he  opposes. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  Dugald  Stewart  in  his  "Outlines  of 
Moral  Philosophy"  makes  any  great  addition.  He  adopts  the 
moral  sense  of  Hutcheson,  but  his  analysis  is  sadly  lacking  in 
coherence  and  clearness. 

Sir  William  Hamilton  follows  in  the  way  and  in  spite  of 
great  learning  and  a  most  attractive  method  of  presentation  he 
leaves  the  reader  with  a  sense  of  his  utter  failure  to  grasp  the 
real  question  at  issue,  and  Hume  remains  really  unanswered. 

Coleridge  (1772-1834)  brought  to  England  the  inspirations 
of  critical  idealism,  but  only  as  they  had  been  worked  out  more 
particularly  by  Schelling,  and  his  work  is  too  scattered  and  un- 
systematic to  be  called  a  serious  contribution  to  organized  ethics. 
The  chief  representative  upon  English  soil  of  idealism  was 
Green  (Thomas  H.,  1836-1882),  who  in  his  introduction  to 
the  philosophical  works  of  Hume  and  his  "Prolegomena  to 
Ethics"  (2d  ed.,  1884),  applied  the  critical  method  learned 
from  Kant,  but  more  especially  from  Kant  as  read  by  the  light 
or  darkness  of  Hegel.  It  cannot  be  claimed  that  Green's  ethics 
are  a  closely  interrelated  whole.  Many  questions  are  left 
seeking  an  answer,  and  the  impression  left  is  often  of  searching 
and  destructive  questioning  than  of  any  great  success  in  con- 
structive rearrangement.    The  powerful  and  beautiful  mind  is, 

'  Essay  V,  chaps,  i  and  2. 


596  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

however,  still  inspiring  men  by  his  bold  challenge  t©  further 
psychological  analysis  as  a  basis  for  ethical  reconstruction. 

5.  English  utilitarianism  has  had  a  long  and  honorable 
history,  but  it  has  been  mainly  outside  of  or  even  in  avowed  in- 
difference or  antagonism  to  organized  Christianity/ 

There  are  exceptions.  It  may  be  really  said  to  arise  within 
Christianity,  for  it  can  be  traced  in  its  beginnings  to  Bishop 
Cumberland  (1632-17 19)  and  appears  in  Butler,  where  the 
social  type  of  utilitarianism  is  found.  But  its  classic  formulation 
was  carried  through  by  Bentham? 

The  principle  that  all  legislation  should  seek  the  greatest 
happiness  of  the  greatest  number  is  also  the  foundation  of  the 
moral  life.  Bentham  is  an  extreme  individualist.  For  his 
thought  society  is  really  an  aggregate  of  disparate  units.  He 
misses  altogether  the  organic  connection  of  the  group  life,  so 
that  both  his  legal  and  ethical  contributions  have  an  air  of  un- 
reality about  them.  He  tries  also  to  group  under  pain  and 
pleasure  psychological  reactions  in  which  we  must  recognize  both 
quantitative  and  qualitative  differences  so  great  that  to  transpose 
them  is  impossible  or  to  measure  them  with  a  common  standard 
is  impossible. 

John  Stuart  Mill,^  whose  great  influence  is  well  deserved 
intellectually,  began  with  Bentham's  single  criterion  for  moral 
diflferentiation  but  soon  had  to  recognize  a  "higher"  and 
"lower"  pleasure  and  pain,  and  at  length  to  really  abandon 
morality  as  a  science  and  treat  it  as  an  art.  Then  under  the 
influence  of  Comte  he  abandoned  the  extreme  individualism 
of  Bentham,  but  too  late  to  ever  wholly  reorganize  his  thought 

'  For  full  bibliography  and  history,  see  Ernest  Albee'e  "  History  of  English 
Utilitarianism,"   1902. 

»  Bentham,  Jeremy,  1748-1832.  Complete  works  edited  by  Sir  John  Bowring, 
in  II  vols.  The  student  of  ethics  needs  to  know  his  "Deontology"  (edited 
by  Bowring,  in  2  vols.,  1834)  and  his  "Introduction  to  the  Principles  of  Morals 
and  Legislation,"  many  editions. 

*Mill,  John  S.,  1806-1873.  His  "Logic"  represents  his  formal  philosophy. 
Book  VI  treats  of  "The  Logic  of  the  Moral  Sciences."  In  his  later  writings  Mill 
defends  positions  that  represent  a  distinct  departure  from  his  early  thought. 


CHURCHLY  AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  ETHICS  597 

on  this  basis.  Indeed  the  whole  character  of  English  empiric 
utilitarianism  was  to  receive  a  great  change  in  the  introduction 
of  systematic  organic  evolution  into  modern  thinking  by  Charles 
Darwin^  and  Herbert  Spencer. 

The  derivation  of  morality  from  feelings  needed  to  preserve 
the  species,  and  their  development  by  a  process  of  natural 
selection,  appealed  most  powerfully  to  many  foremost  minds. 
In  Herbert  Spencer's  philosophy  ethics  is  treated  as  a  pait  of 
the  process  from  the  homogeneous  and  undifferentiated  to  the 
heterogeneous  and  differentiated,  and  its  laws  are  discussed  in 
his  social  statics.  But  perhaps  the  most  attractive  statement  is 
in  John  Fiske's  "Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy."^ 

The  fullest  statement  of  Darwin's  thesis  is  by  Sutherland.^ 

Into  an  examination  of  the  evolutionary  utilitarianism  space 
forbids  us  to  go.  The  social  basis  is  recognized  and  to  some 
degree  a  scale  of  values  is  accepted.  It  can  only  be  pointed  out 
that  the  life  of  moral  faith  has  as  yet  never  been  fully  rational- 
ized, and  that  what  evolutionary  utilitarianism  always  does 
is  to  give  us  an  account  of  the  unfolding  of  that  which  in  point 
of  fact  is  always  assumed  as  inherent  in  the  situation.  Given  the 
occasional  occurrence  of  a  moral  variation  amidst  unmoral  sen- 
sations, and  evolution  can  do  all  the  rest;  but  how  to  account  for  a 
moral  variation  amid  non-moral  changes  is  as  baffling  as  ever. 
Nor  does  evolutionary  utilitarianism  give  us  any  key  to  the  scale 
of  values  by  which  we  measure  life's  complex  experiences  and  give 
to  the  moral  feelings  an  unquestioned  hegemony,  and  compels 
us  to  say  with  Darwin:  "It  is  the  most  noble  of  all  the  attributes 
of  man."  Why  should  we  call  that  which  is  simply  the  most 
useful  factor  in  the  preservation  of  the  species  the  most  noble  ? 

Once  the  life  of  moral  faith  has  appealed  to  us  as  the  most 
noble,  then  indeed  content  may  be  given  that  life  through  an 

'Darwin,  Charles,  1809-1882.  "Descent  of  Man,"  part  i,  chap.  3,  deals 
with  his  explanation  of  the  rise  of  the  moral  sense. 

^  Vol.  II,  part  2,  chap.  22,  p.  324,  edition  1874. 

'  Sutherland,  Alexander:  "The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Moral  Instinct," 
2  vols.,  i8g8. 


598  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

examination  of  our  empiric  experiences  with  social  and  indi- 
vidual utility  is  a  guide.  So  ethics  becomes  not  only  an  historic 
but  an  experimental  science,  with  its  examination  of  empiric 
experience  as  an  essential  element.  We  must  under  the  im- 
perative of  a  sense  of  "oughtness"  or  obligation  seek  our  ideal, 
but  the  content  of  our  ideal  can  never  be  given  a  priori,  but  only 
as  the  result  of  historical  and  experimental  science.  For  the 
sense  of  moral  obligation  we  may  claim  categorical  finality, 
for  the  content  of  moral  experience  a  relative  approach  to  truth 
is  all  that  is  open  to  the  finite  mind. 


With  this  hasty  survey  our  examination  of  the  rise  of  a 
modern  Christian  ethics  from  the  systems  of  the  past  must 
close.  May  the  survey  enable  us  to  enter  more  freely  and 
more  intelligently  into  the  ethical  plan  of  Our  Father,  the  God 
of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


INDEX 


Aaron,  Moses  and,  41. 

Abba,  56. 

Abelard,  Peter,  334/- 

Absolute,  the,  in  ethics,  573;  Kant 
and  the,  579. 

Acedia,  248. 

Action,  prophets  of,  36. 

Africa,  Council  of,  244. 

Agobard  of  Lyons,  289/.;  supersti- 
tion and,  290. 

Albertus  Magnus,  309  ff.;  and  mystic 
thought,  357. 

Alcuin,  274/".,  283. 

d'Alembert,  589. 

Alexander  the  Great,  19. 

Almsgiving,  in  Hermas,  in;  in  the 
Didache,  120. 

Ambrose,  23,  204  jf.,  232. 

Amesius,  542. 

Amos,  34. 

Anabaptists,  433;  ethics  of,  505; 
Franciscans  and,  506;  proletariat 
character  of,  507;  liberty  of  con- 
science and,  509;  Baptists  of  Eng- 
land and,  509. 

Anablatha,  233. 

Anglo-Catholicism,  ethics  of,  410  jf. 

Anselm,  9;  ethics  of,  302  ff.\  satisfac- 
tion theory,  305. 

Anskar,  Bishop  of,  293  ff. 

Anthony,  St.,  196. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  309,  316;  ethics 
of,  319  #.;  Church  and  State  in, 
328;  service  and,  329;  aristocratic 
temper  of,  329;  attitude  toward 
war,  330;  property  and,  332. 

Arabic,    scholarship    and     literature, 

307- 

Areopagite,  Dionysius  the,  275. 

Arianism,  197,  203,  232,  244. 

Aristotle,  influence  of,  11,  19;  Aqui- 
nas and,  ^iSff- 


Arminians,  Calvinism  and,  563. 

Asceticism,  Jesus'  attitude  toward, 
64;  meaning  of,  199,  201;  monas- 
tery and,  215. 

Assisi,  Francis  of,  357. 

Athanasius,  monasticism  and,  193  ff.; 
literature  of,  193;  St.  Anthony  and, 
194;  service  of,  202. 

Athens,  population  of,  19. 

Attritio,  contritio  and,  $(iO  ff. 

Aufklarung,  369. 

Augsburg  Confession,  533. 

Augustine,  236  /.;  the  church  and, 
238;  morals  of,  239;  confessions 
of,  239;  Pelagius  and,  240;  psy- 
chology of,  240;  fides  implicita  and, 
241;  love  and,  242. 

Authority,  infallible,  uselessness  of, 
254- 

Babylon,  cosmogony,  44,  108. 
Bacon,   Francis,  440  ff.;    conduct   to 

Essex,  442. 
Ban,  communal,  loi. 
Baptism,  in  "Recognitions,"  141;   in 

Erigena,  299. 
Baptist,  John  the,  36. 
Barclay,  Robert,  433. 
Bardesanes,  138. 
Barnabas,  letter  of,  113. 
Basil,  life  and  literature  of,   209  ff.; 

coenobium  and,  21a. 
Basilides,  135. 
Baur-Tvibingen,  97,  127. 
Bede,  the  venerable,  267  ff.,  272. 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  596. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  358^.;   attack 

on  Abelard,  359. 
Berno  of  Clugny,  355. 
Bestmann,  7. 
Blount,  Charles,  454. 
Boethius,  m. 


S99 


6oo 


INDEX 


Bonaventura,  357,  360  ff.;    mysticism 

of,  361. 
Bonifacius,  Winfred,  272. 
Breckinridge,  theology  of,  485. 
Browne,  Robert,  402,  426  ff. 
Bucer,  Martin,  ethics  of,  516^. 
Buddeus,    Johann     F.,    539;     Male- 

branche  and,  539. 
Busher,  Leonard,  433. 
Butler,  Bishop,  457. 
Byzantianism,  287. 

Cainites,  133. 

Calixtus,  Georg,  183,  538^. 

Calvin,  John,  469;  ethics  of,  518^.; 
theory  of  church,  519;  sacraments 
and,  521;  notes  of  true  church,  521; 
theories  of  State  and,  523;  signifi- 
cance of  the  cross,  526;  Servetus 
and,  528;  services  of,  532;  Puritan 
State  and,  532;  canon  law,  301. 

Canons  of  Basil,  213;  law,  213^.;  of 
Nice,  230;   of  Elvirae,  230,  250. 

Carlstadt,  491. 

Carlovingian  books,  287. 

Carpocrates,  138. 

Cartwright,  Harrison  and,  428. 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  ethics  of,  398; 
literature,  398. 

Cassianus,  Johannes,  245^.;  fasting 
and,  250;    Cicero  and,  250. 

Cassiodorus,  231,  272^. 

Casuistry,  the  new  Protestant,  540^.; 
definition  of,  540. 

Cathari,  356. 

Celibacy,  iggff-;  democracy  and,  276. 

Celsus,  159. 

Cenobium,  origin  of,  215,  248. 

Chajvemon,  Abbot,  245. 

Charlemagne,  275;  hierarchy  and, 
285/. 

Charles  the  Bald,  293;  tolerance  and, 
300. 

Chillingworth,  456. 

Christianity,  linked  with  Jesus,  3. 

Chrysostom,  slavery  and,  183,  209, 
232;   life  of,  207;   service  of,  208. 

Church,  Old  Catholic  or  Bishop's,  9, 
221^.;  Christian  beginnings  of,  10; 
functions  of,  106;  basis  of,  for  Paul, 
106. 

Churches,  the  building  of,  232. 


Chytraeus,  D.,  537. 

Cicero,   his   empire   of   thought,    20; 

ethics  of,  30;  Ambrose  and,  205. 
Cistercians,  356. 
City,  the  free,  368. 
City  of  God,  Augustine's,  242. 
Clarke,  Samuel,  457. 
Claudius,  Bishop,  288/. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  148. 
Clement  XIV  and  the  Jesuits,  558. 
Clement,  letter  of,  115. 
Clementine  literature,  pseudo,  139. 
Coleridge,  595. 
Collegia,  piestistic,  548. 
Collins,  Anthony,  460. 
Commandments,  the  ten,  37. 
Communism,  churchly,  182,  220. 
Community,  the  holy,  39. 
Comte,  Auguste,  $9°  ff- 
Concord,  formula  of,  533. 
Constance,  Council  of,  366,  554. 
Constantine,  interest   in   church,  222; 

protection  of  church,  224,  234. 
Constantinople,  capture  of,  286. 
Councils,  ethics  of,  251  ff. 
Counter-reformation,  535. 
Cranmer,  393. 
Creeds,  ethics  of,  533  ff. 
Criticism,  literary  or  higher,  42. 
Crusades,    literature   of,    366;     effect 

upon  Roman  imperialism,  367;  and 

commercial  Judaism,  367. 
Cud  worth,  Ralph,  451. 
Cult,  the  oriental,  25;   fourth   Gospel 

and,  89. 
Cumberland,  Bishop,  456. 
Cumont,  27. 
Cyprian,  172. 

Dahn,  Felix,  270. 

Dalman,  57. 

Damascus,  John  of,  259. 

Daniel,  46. 

Dannieus,  L.,  539. 

Dante,  369,  380. 

Darwin,  Charles,  597. 

Decalogue,  171. 

Decretals,  the  Isidorian,  300. 

Dedeken,  M.,  542. 

Deists,  the  English,  450. 

Denck,  505. 

Deniflc,  H.  and  Luther,  491  (note). 


INDEX 


6oi 


Descartes,  Ren^,  565  ff.;    Queen  of 

Sweden  and,  567. 
Deuteronomists,  school  of,  ^tVt   ethics 

of,  41. 
Diderot,  589. 
Dionysius,    pseudo,    the    Areopagite, 

275  jf.;   so-called  liturgia  of,  344. 
Dionysus,  cult  of,  25. 
Doceticism,  fourth  Gospel  and,  88. 
Doctrine,  sound,  99. 
Donatists,  212,  238. 
Droysen,  Hellenism  and,  20. 
Duns  Scotus,  9,  338^. 

Ebionites,  the,  127. 

Ecclesia,  51,  60. 

Eckhart,  Meister,  363, 

Ehrenfeuchter,  8. 

Elvira,  canons  of,  182,  230. 

Encyclopaedists  (French),  589. 

Ephraem,  his  hymns,  232. 

Epictetus,  23. 

Epicureanism,  Christian  feelingand,  2 1 . 

Epigones  of  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 

centuries,  535. 
Epiphanius,  135,  233. 
Erigena,  Johannes  Scotus,  296  j/". 
Essenes,  36,  128,  200. 
Eusebius,  222  /f. 
Evangelicalism  in  England,  546. 
Experience,  Christian,  6. 

Fasting,  64;   in  Hermas,  112. 

Fechner,  Gustav,  585  _/. 

Feudalism,  church  and,  261;   rise  and 

nature  of,  277. 
Feuerlein,  8. 
Fichte,  J.  G.,  580. 
Fides  implicita,  241,  308. 
Fiske,  John,  597. 
Fitz-Ralph,  Archbishop,  378. 
Flora,  Ptolemaeus  to,  135. 
Fourth  Gospel,  51. 
Fox,  George,  433,  435. 
France,  post-Protestant,  588. 
Francis,  St.,  340. 
Francke,  A.  H.,  549. 
Free   city,  relation   to  crusades,  368; 

relation  to  feudalism,  368. 

Galatia,  church  of,  73. 
Gass,  ethics  of,  7. 


Gehenna,  176. 

Gerhard,  Johann,  537. 

Germanic  tribes,  270^. 

Gerson,  J.  C,  554. 

Gnosticism,   fourth   Gospel  and,   88, 

129,  132,  134- 

God,  kingdom  of,  57;  reign  of,  58; 
Jesus'  attitude  toward,  66;  confi- 
dence in,  68;  Paul  and,  71;  Clem- 
ent and,  151. 

Gottschalk,  292  jf. 

Greece,  cosmopolitanism  of,  20. 

Green,  Thomas  H.,  595. 

Gregory,  Nazianzen,  195. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa,  226. 

Gregory,  Pope  I,  260,  263  ff.\  music 
of,  266;   Gregory  VII,  306. 

Groot,  Gerhard,  363. 

Grotius,  Hugo,  ethics  of,  563. 

Guyot,  Yves,  279. 

Guzman,  Dominic  de,  357. 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  595. 

Hammurabi,  code  of,  38. 

Harnack,  131,  135,  156,  164. 

Hartmann  von,  584. 

Hatch,  24,  179. 

Hebrews,  ethics  of,  93. 

Hegel,  G.  W.  F.,  581. 

Heidelberg  Catechism,  533. 

Hellenism,  Paul  and,  10;  Christian- 
ity and,  II. 

Helvldlus,  229. 

Helvetic  Confession,  533. 

Henry  VIII,  and  the  English  church, 
410;   Lollardism  and,  411. 

Herbert,  Lord  of  Cherbury,  449; 
works  of,  451/.,  455. 

Hermas,  107,  no;  and  baptism,  112. 

Heron,  story  of,  246. 

Herrnhut,  552. 

Hierarchy,  Paul's  relation  to,  86; 
Roman,  and  authority,  284. 

High  places,  42. 

Hippolytus,  131,  133. 

Historia  Lausiaca,  226. 

Hobbes,  Thomas,  445  Jf. 

Hoeffding,  587. 

Hooker,  Richard,  ^1^  ff. 

Hooper,  Bishop,  ethics  of,  393. 

Horace,  230. 

Horus,  201. 


6o2 


INDEX 


Hosea,  .^5. 

Hiibmaier,  Balthasar,  433,  505. 

Hugo  of  St.  Victor,  349. 

Humanists,  the,  369  jf. 

Hume,  David,  448,  460^.;    property 

and  justice,  463. 
Hymns,  churchly,  232. 

Iconoclasts,  255,  258. 

Ignatius,  letters  of,  167. 

Illumination,  the,  368;  effect  upon 
native  literature,  369. 

Image  worship,  233. 

Imperialism,  Roman,  108. 

Independency,  ethics  of,  424. 

Individualism,  Christianity  and,  22; 
Congregationalism  and,  425;  liter- 
ature of,  425. 

Innocent  III,  350  ff.;  and  slavery, 
353;   and  marriage  relation,  354. 

Inspiration  of  Scriptures,  103. 

Irenaeus,  127,  133;   life  of,  169. 

Isaiah,  45. 

Isidor,  135. 

Isidorian  decretals,  300. 

Isis  cult,  190,  192. 

Jahwe,  prophetic  picture  of,  36. 

James,  95. 

Jansenism,  557. 

Jerome,  218;  his  "lives,"  227;  life  of, 

227^.;   heresy  and,  228;    marriage 

and,  228. 
Jesuitism,  556;     political   failures   of, 

559- 

Jesus,  relation  to  Christianity,  3; 
ideals  of,  4;  misconception  of,  5; 
God  in  Christ,  6;  as  central  figure 
in  history,  48;  historical  character 
of,  48  (note);  ethics  of,  49;  Jewish 
character  of,  50;  literary  style  of, 
53;  deification  of,  178. 

Jews,  Agobard  against  the,  290. 

Job,  45.  61. 

Jodl,  ethics  of,  8. 

John,  fourth  Gospel,  87;  ethics  of,  87 
ff.\  Jewish  character  of,  92  (note). 

Josephus,  II,  44,  47,  125. 

Josiah,  41. 

Jovinianus,  229,  236. 

Judaism,  unorganized  character  of,  11; 
not   exclusive,   40,  43;    Hellenized, 


43;  Jesus'  relation  to,  67;  Paul's 
relation  to,  72;  Gnostic,  257;  influ- 
ence of  on  Christianity  of  M.  A.,  290. 

Julian  of  Eclana,  239,  241,  244. 

Julian  the  apostate,  191,  203. 

Jiilicher,  66. 

Justinian,  pseudo,  tracts,  148. 

Justin  Martyr,  144. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  9,  577;  works  and 
literature,  577  # 

Kiss,  the  holy,  417. 

Knox,  John,  ethics  of,  404  jf.;  litera- 
ture, 404;  Knox  and  the  bann, 
406;  and  Mrs.  Bowes,  408. 

Kostlin,  8. 

Laodicea,  canons  of,  256. 

Lapsi,  207. 

Lateran  council,  356. 

Latifundia,  effects  of,  277. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  420  ff.;  attitude 
toward  Scotland,  423. 

Law,  canon,  301. 

Leibnitz,  G.  W.,  571. 

Leo,  Pope,  252;  Leo  IX,  257,  Leo 
I,  260. 

Leviticus,  laws  of,  39. 

Libri  pcenitentiales,  296. 

Lignori,  A.  M.,  561. 

Locke,  John,  447  ff.,  449. 

Loescher,  V.  and  Spener,  548, 

Logos,  46;  Johannine  literature  and, 
91. 

Lollards,  ethics  of,  386;  literature  of, 
386. 

Lombard,  Peter,  2>d&  ff. 

Lotz,  Rudolph  H.,  585. 

Louis  the  Pious,  292. 

Loyola,  Ignatius  de,  555. 

Luke,  universalism  of,  56;  proletariat 
character  of,  100. 

Luthardt,  7,  8. 

Luther,  Martin,  ethics  of,  468  ff.; 
world  of,  471;  free  cities  and,  472; 
Protestant  elements  in,  475  ff.; 
scholastic  elements  in,  481;  infal- 
libility and,  482;  church  and,  4S2; 
doctrine  of  the  State,  486;  practical 
ethics  of,  488;  attitude  to  peasants, 
489;  Philip  of  Hesse  and,  490; 
intemperance  and,  493. 


INDEX 


603 


Mackintosh,  9. 

Magic,  the  church  and,  302. 

Magna  Mater,  190,  192. 

Mahometanism,  eastern  church  and, 
280;   limits  of,  286. 

Malebranche,  Nicholas,  568. 

Manicheans,  Augustine  and,  238. 

Marcion,  135,  136,  137,  162. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  144. 

Marheinecke,  7. 

Mark,  chronology  of,  60. 

Marsiglio  of  Padua,  379. 

Martineau,  8. 

Martyrdom,  church  and,  183,  200, 
223. 

Mater  Dolorosa,  201. 

Matthew,  Gospel  of,  100. 

Maurice,  F.  D.,  7. 

Maximus  the  Confessor,  259,  348. 

McGiffert,  139. 

Mechthild  of  Magdeburg,  363. 

Meiners,  C,  8. 

Melanchthon,  250;  ecclesiasticism  and, 
485;  ethics  of,  496  Jf.;  Ritschl  and, 
496;  life  of,  497  (note);  free  will 
and,  500. 

Meritum,  200,  241. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  591,  596. 

Milton,  John,  435  #. 

Missionary,  the  movement  and  mon- 
astery, 269. 

Mithras,  cult  of,  26;  church  and,  190. 

Molesme,  Robert  of,  356. 

Monastery,  the  hermit  and,  200;  as- 
ceticism and,  215;  ideals  of,  216; 
literature  of,  216;  its  learning,  229; 
missions  and,  269  ff.;  in  the  tenth 
century,  355. 

Monotheism,  ethical  and  metaphys- 
ical, 15. 

Montanists,  161. 

Morality,  relation  to  ethics,  5;  su- 
preme importance  of,  62. 

Moralium,  Gregory  I  and  the,  265. 

More,  Henry,  451. 

Moses,  37,  41. 

Mount,  sermon  on,  58,  59;  tempta- 
tion on  the,  68. 

Miinzer,  Thomas,  505. 

Musonius,  149. 

Mysticism,  Erigena  and,  299^.;  scho- 
lastic, 341  ff.\    definition  of,   342; 


types  of,  342;  literature  of,  343;  Bo- 
naventura  and,  361;  German  mysti- 
cism, 362. 

Neander,  7. 

Neoplatonism,  28. 

Neopythagoreanism,  29. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  418. 

New  Testament,  Jewish  in  thought, 

10. 
Nica;a,     its     orthodoxy,      203,     204; 

theme  of,  193;  council  of  (787),  255, 

257- 
Nietzsche,  Fr.,  challenge  of,  6. 
Nominalism,  341. 
Novatians,  206. 

Ockham,  William,  340/.;  and  Pope 
John  XXII,  381. 

Oldcastle,  387. 

Old  Testament,  relation  to  Christian- 
ity, 10;   preparation  in,  32. 

Ophites,  131. 

Optatus,  201. 

Organum,  the,  of  Aristotle,  307. 

Origen,  155. 

Orthodoxy,  Johannine  Gospel  and, 
90. 

Osiander,  J.  A.,  542. 

Pachomius,  Athanasius  and,  198;  mon- 
astery and,  215. 

Palladius,  226. 

Papacy,  militant,  and  its  ethics,  258^.; 
infallibility  of,  341. 

Paradisus  Animae,  310,  313. 

Parousia,  126. 

Pascal,  557. 

Paul,  inward  authority  of,  3;  mission 
of,  10;  relation  to  Jesus,  51;  ethics 
oi,6gff.;  letters  of,  72;  doctrine  of 
flesh  and  spirit,  77;  letter  to  Rome, 
74;  letters  to  Corinth,  79;  kingdom 
of  God  and,  80;  letter  to  Thessa- 
lonians,  8i;  letters  of  captivity,  81; 
slavery,  83;  Plato  and,  84;  sense 
of  infallibility,  98;  and  marriage, 
179. 

Paulsen,  587. 

Paulas,  life  of,  218. 

Peacock  and  Wycliff,  386. 

Pelagius,  Augustine  and,  340,  344. 


6o4 


INDEX 


Penance,  types  of,  212. 

Penitence,  books  of,  196. 

Pentecost,  Nicaea  and,  223. 

Peratac,  133. 

Peter,  Apocalypse  of,  181. 

Petzel,  casuistry  of,  542. 

Phiio,  II,  44,  46,  47,  125,  128. 

Phocas,  Gregory  I  and,  263. 

Photius,  257,  261. 

Piers  Ploughman,  387. 

Pietism,    ethics   of,    544  ff.;     Ritschl 

upon,  545. 
Plato,  influence  of,  11;   cult  and,  13; 

immortality  and,  13;    "idea"  and, 

14;  despondency  and,   15;    monas- 

ticism  and,  16. 
Platonists,   the  so-called   Cambridge, 

451- 
Pliny,  179,  232. 
Plymouth  brethren,  430. 
Polycarp  letter  of,  123. 
Port  Royal,  561. 
Post-Tridentine   Catholicism   and   its 

ethics,  554. 
Prayer,  Lord's  in  the  Didache,   121; 

Tertullian  and,  164;    Cyprian  and, 

176. 
Price,  Richard,  592. 
Priestly  development,  37,  40. 
Priestley,  Joseph,  592. 
Probabilism,  557;   grades  of,  560. 
Propheticism,  ethics  of,  34. 
Protestantism,  ethics  of  philosophical, 

438,  563/- 

Ptolemasus,  135. 

Purgatory,  193. 

Puritanism,  Tertullian  and,  166;  eth- 
ics of,  396  ff.\   interests  of  English, 

397- 
Pythagoras,  233. 

Quakers,  435. 

Queen  of  heaven,  256. 

Rabbinism,  52. 

"Recognitions,"  140. 

Redemption,  vision  of,  46. 

Reformation,  the  English,  365  jf.;  joy 
of,  372;  immediate  effects  of,  373; 
practical  character  of,  375;  divis- 
ions of,  377;  continental,  and  its 
ethics,  468 _^.;   morals  of,  474. 


Reformed  church,  ethics  of,  509. 

Rcid,  Thomas,  594. 

Relativity,  essential,  of  Protestantism, 

6. 
Relics,  233,  255;  Bonifacius  and,  273. 
Renan,  on  Mithras,  27. 
Revelation  to  John,  95,  96. 
Reward,  Jesus'  attitude  toward,  65. 
Richelieu,  Cardinal,  368. 
Righteousness,  character  of,  63;  Paul's 

conception  of,  70,  73;  christology  of , 

70. 
Ritschl,  Otto,  5. 
Rohde,  21. 
Roman,  the  church  cosmopolitanism 

of,  293;   relation  of  feudalism,  368. 
Rome,  military  organization  of,   116, 

117;     contribution    to    church,    30; 

church  of,  189. 
Roscelin,  Abelard  and,  335;   Nomin- 
alism of,  340. 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  589. 

Sacrifice,  Hebrews  and,  94. 
Satan,  44. 

Satyrus,  brother  of  Ambrose,  306. 
Schelling,  581. 

Schleiermacher,  F.  E.  D.,  582. 
Scholasticism,  ethics  of,  282  jf.;    defi- 
nition of,  282  and  295;  history  and, 

332- 
Schopenhauer,  584. 
Schultz,  H.,  55. 
Schwenkfeld,  505. 
Second  temple,  prophets  of,  36. 
Seneca,  96,  173. 
Serapion,  story  of,  246. 
Serapis,  monks  of,  217,  218. 
Serfdom,  rise  of,  277. 
Servant,  suffering,  59. 
Sethians,  133. 
Sexual  fanaticism,  235. 
Shaftesbury,  Anthony,  Earl  of,  Miff- 
Shirley,  Canon,  judgment  of  VVyclif, 

385.. 
Sidgwick,  8. 
Simon,  142. 

Sins,  venial  and  deadly,  246. 
Slavery,   Jesus'   attitude    toward,   65; 

Essenes  and,  136;  church  and,  182, 

276,  277;    church  fathers  and,  278; 

Southern  Prcsbytcrianism  and,  495. 


INDEX 


60s 


Smith,  Adam,  465  jf.;  critique  of 
Hutcheson,  467,  590;  physiocrats 
and,  590. 

Social     Democrats     (German),     185, 

311. 

Socrates,   demon  of,    12;    the   history 

of,  225. 
Song  of  songs,  229. 
Sophocles,  Qidipus  of,  235. 
Sozomen,  222,  225. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  591. 
Spener,    P.    J.,    54^   ff-',    ethics    of, 

547- 
Spinoza,  Baruch,  53,  568^. 
Staudlin,  7. 
Stewart,  Dugald,  595. 
Stoicism,  composition  of,  20;   two-fold 

character  of,  33;   and  redemption, 

25;   character  of,  71. 
Suso,  Heinrich,  363. 
Sutherland,  Alexander,  597. 
Syllogism,  Aquinas  and,  322. 
Synagogue,  brotherhood  of,  40. 
Synoptic,  the  question  of,  52. 

Tauler,  Johannes,  363. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  437,  456. 

Teaching    of    twelve    apostles,     118; 

"two  ways"  relation  to,  119. 
Temple,  the  second,  45. 
Tertullian,    133,    160;     slavery    and, 

183;  and  Mithra  cult,  191. 
Teutsche  theologie,  364. 
Thelemic,  54. 
Theodoret,  225,  231. 
Thessalonians  I  and  II,  72. 
Thomas,  see  Aquinas,  316. 
Tillotson,  Bishop,  456. 
Timothy,  72,  99. 
Tindal,  Matthew,  454. 
Titus,  72. 

Torah,  39;   Paul  and,  72. 
Trades-unions,  185. 
Travers,  Walter,  400,  413. 
Trent,  Council  of,  332,  503. 
Tyndale,  William,  ethics  of,  388  /.; 

literature,  388. 
Tyre,  Eusebius's  discourse  at,  231. 

Unity,  102,  106. 


Valens,  123. 

Valentine,  Emperor,  330. 

Valentinus,  133. 

Vallombrosian  order,  355. 

Values,  doctrine  of,  583. 

Venatorius,  Thomas,  536. 

Victorinus,  343  ff- 

Vigilantius,  236,  255. 

Vincentius  of  Lerins,  245. 

Virgil,  230. 

Virginity,  198,  199,  205. 

Virtues,    Aquinas's    classification    of, 

325- 
Voltaire,  589. 
Vulgate,  Jerome's,  230. 

Waldensian  church,Claudius  and,  289. 

Waldo,  Peter,  357. 

Ward,  Osborne,  28. 

Weller,  H.,  536. 

Wellhausen,  estimate  of  Jesus'  place,  4. 

Wendland,  149. 

Wendt,  66. 

de  Wette,  7. 

Weiss,  J.,  5. 

White,  Andrew  D.,  438. 

Whitgift,  John,  421. 

Wilamowitz,   Moellendorf  Hellenism, 

24. 
Williams,  Roger,  233  ff. 
Wisdom,  the  literature,  2,yy  its  method, 

46;   Jesus  and,  52. 
Wolfif,  Christian,  571. 
Wollaston,  William,  453  jT- 
Wundt,  8. 

Wundt,  W.  M.,  587. 
Wuttke,  7. 
Wyclif,  ethics  of,  378  ff.;    literature, 

378,   379;    and    German   Anglican 

alliance,  385. 

Zeno,  233. 

Ziegler,  4,  7. 

Zinzendorf,  Count,  552;  life  and 
works,  552. 

Zwickau,  prophets  of,  505. 

Zwingli,  H.,  469;  ethics  of,  511;  life 
and  works,  511  (note);  Protestant- 
ism of,  513;  national  character  of, 
515;  Vatican  and,  516. 


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